EA 120 Japanese Theater Assignment 2: Kyogen as Parody

First, read General Points About Papers. Make sure you follow the directions for formating, footnoting, etc., including providing a title page with names of the plays you are comparing. Remember to italicize or underline titles of plays! FOR THIS PAPER, you can cite lines from the plays by simply giving the title and page number (eg. Thunderbolt, p. 62, or Sumidagawa, p. 255)

Assignment 2: Not all Kyogen plays parody Noh, but a select group do. Following the lead of Carolyn Hayne’s article on the two main forms of parody in Kyôgen (syntagmatic=role reversal/surprising audience expectations and paradigmatic=taking accepted notion to extremes) and the week 4b lecture on "Kyogen as Parody," choose one of the Kyôgen plays listed below and discuss how it parodies the Noh. Consider as much of the following as you can: the plot structure; role reversal; allusions to poetry/Noh; word play/poetic techniques; dance and movement; costume/masks/props; use of music/song. (Not all of these aspects will be important for every play.) Make sure you don't simply compare and contrast the Noh and Kyôgen plays you write about, but rather focus on how the parodic aspects contribute to the Kyogen play being funny. In your discussion you should support your argument with concrete examples (quotations!!) from both the Noh and the Kyogen plays. Minimum 2-3 pages, double-spaced. Suggested comparisons are given below:

Parodying First Category Deity Plays:

Kyogen: Thunderbolt (Kaminari) [TJT, 61-67, images]

Noh: Kamo [TJT, 44-60 images]

Parodying Second Category Warrior Plays:

Kyogen: Tsuen (image) or The Cicada (Semi) [TJT, 284-91]

Noh: Atsumori [TJT 126-42], Yashima, or Yorimasa (note, every other page is in Japanese).

Parodying Fifth Category Demon Plays:

Kyogen: Kusabira [TJT 245-254, images]

Noh: Aoi no Ue (second act) [English/Japanese, images], Adachigahara [English/Japanese, images] or Dojoji [TJT 193-206, images]