EA 40 Week 3a Outline
I. Fictional accounts of angry ghosts and rituals
A. Tale of Genji
1. Author: Murasaki Shikibu (lady-in-waiting to Empress Shôshi/Akiko, daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga)
2. Patron: Fujiwara no Michinaga
3. Audience:
4. Purpose:
5. Benefit:
6. Genre:
7. Narrative/plot necessity:
8. Historical development:
B. What are Heian period fictional accounts of ghosts and rituals mainly about?
1. polygyny/polygamy:
2. Why would this be the focus?
3. What does Murasaki Shikibu think about the relationship of male guilt and female possession?
[from Murasaki Shikibu's poetry collection]
A poem written about a painting on a screen:
Someone had drawn on a scroll the unpleasant form of a woman possessed by an evil spirit. Behind the possessed woman, a priest was restraining the husband's former wife, who had appeared as a demon. The husband was trying to subdue the evil spirit by reading a sutra.
In his anguish
He has blamed it on his dead wife,
But is it not
The demon in his own heart?
IV. Tale of Genji
A. Who is Rokujô? (Also, see this chart.) A daughter of a former high ranking Minister of the Left. Rokujô was married to the Crown Prince (Genji's uncle, his father's older brother) at 16 and bore him a daughter (Akikonomu). Her father died prematurely, so the Crown Prince lost his political backing and was deposed. He died soon afterward leaving Rokujô a widow at age 20. Genji's father then became emperor with the backing of his father-in-law (Minister of the Right). At the start of this chapter Rokujô is about 29-30 years old with a young daughter 13-14 years old.
1. Why is the affair problematic?
a.
b.
c.
1) Who are two possible angry ghosts?
a)
b)
2. Why is the affair not going well?
a. Age
b. Gossip
1) Emperor to Genji (p. 147): "The Crown Prince was so very fond of her," he said to Genji, in open displeasure. "It is sad that you should have made light of her, as if she were an ordinary woman. I think of the high priestess [Rokujo's daughter] as one of my own children, and you should be good to her mother [Rokujo], for my sake and for the sake of the dead prince. It does you no good to abandon yourself to these affairs quite as the impulse takes you."
Continues: "You should treat any woman with tact and courtesy, and be sure that you cause her no embarrassment. You should never have a woman angry with you."
b. Personality: What is Rokujô like as a person?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5) dominant character trait?
3. Position of Heian women as represented in Tale of Genji
B. Who is Aoi (AKA "Heartvine" or Aoi no Ue)?
1. Older than Genji (married when she was 16 and he was 12)
2. What is she like?
a.
b.
3. Why might she be vulnerable to possession?
a.
C. The carriage incident (pp. 148-53) [image]
1. Rokujô's immediate response (pp. 150-51)?
a. “Quite aside from her natural distress at the insult, she was filled with the bitterest chagrin that, having refrained from display, she had been recognized. The stools for her carriage shafts had been broken and the shafts propped on the hubs of perfectly strange carriages, a most undignified sight. It was no good asking herself why she had come….
b. After Genji passes without acknowledging her:
“…the Rokujo lady was in misery. She had been utterly defeated…She was ashamed of her tears. Yet she thought of how sorry she would have been if she had not seen that handsome figure set off to such advantage by the crowds.”
2. Result
a. Before:
b. Now:
3. Genji's response?
(p. 153) “Genji presently heard the story of the competing carriages. He was sorry for the Rokujo lady and angry with his wife. It was a sad fact that, so deliberate and fastidious, she lacked ordinary compassion. There was indeed a tart, forbidding quality about her. She refused to see, though it was probably an unconscious refusal, that ladies who were to each other as she was to the Rokujo lady should behave with charity and forbearance. It was under her influence that the men in her service threw themselves so violently about. Genji sometimes felt uncomfortable before the proud dignity of the Rokujo lady, and he could imagine her rage and humiliation now.”
a. Who does he blame?
b. Does he feel guilty?
c. Who do you think is to blame?
d. Why doesn't his visit to Rokujo help?
4. Rokujo's response (later)
(p. 156) "For the Rokujo lady the pain was unrelieved. She knew that she could expect no lessening of his coldness, and yet to steel herself and go off to Ise with her daughter -- she would be lonely, she knew, and people would laugh at her. They would laugh just as heartily if she stayed in the city. Her thoughts were as the fisherman's bob at Ise. Her very soul seemed to jump wildly about, and at last she fell physically ill."
D. Exorcism scene (pp. 156-65)
1. Inital exorcism scene(p. 156): “At Sanjo, Genji's wife [Aoi] seemed to be in the grip of a malign spirit.”
2.
Rokujô's point of view (pp. 160, 163)
" The malign spirit was more insistent and Aoi was in great distress. Unpleasant rumors reached the Rokujô lady, to the effect that it might be her spirit or that of her father, the late minister (that is possessing Aoi). Though she had felt sorry enough for herself, she had not wished ill to anyone, and might it be that the soul of one so lost in sad thoughts went wandering off by itself? She had, over the years, known the full range of sorrows, but never before had she felt so utterly miserable. There had been no release since the other lady had so insulted her, indeed behaved as if she didn't exist."
a. Description of her dream vision (p. 160)
“More than once she had the same dream: in the beautifully appointed apartments of a lady who seemed to be a rival she would push and shake the lady, and flail at her blindly and savagely. It was too terrible. Sometimes in a daze she would ask herself if her soul had indeed gone wandering off.”
b. Is she conscious of what she's doing?
c. What kind of tama is this?
3. Labor Exorcism of Aoi (pp. 161-65)
4. How does Rokujô kill Aoi? (pp. 164-65)
a. Genji has gone to see his other son, the crown prince (making excuses).
b. Her father and brothers are gone as well.
c. What has stopped?
d. She is seized by a “strangling shortness of breath” and dies
5. Is the exorcism successful?
6. Does possession accomplish anything positive for the women possessed and the women possessing?
a. Yes
b. No
7. What is Murasaki Shikibu 's goal here? Why isn't the exorcism successful and Rokujo pacified?
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