EA 170/WS 170 Week 3b Outline Jealousy and Possession Continued I. What subsequently happens to Rokuj?? A. What is the situation at the beginning of the Chapter 10, "The Green Branch" (Sakaki)? p. 186: As the High Priestess's journey to Ise approached, her mother, the Rokuj? Haven, felt increasingly miserable. Now that Aoi, show commanding rank she had so resented, was no more, people told one another that her time had come, and her own gentlewomen looked forward eagerly to the future; but when she considered Genji's subsequent silence and his shabby treatment of her, she recognized that something must really have happened to distress him, and she therefore put her feelings aside to prepare for a resolute departure. 1. What were Rokuj?'s ladies-in-waiting expecting after Aoi's death? What happened instead? Genji, p. 185: As to the Rokuj? Haven, her plight affected him very much, but things would never go well if he acknowledged her formally, whereas she was just the woman to discuss things with now and again, if she would only let him go on seeing her as in the past. He could not bring himself to give her up even now. B. What does it mean that Rokuj?'s daughter is being sent to Ise as the priestess? 1. The historical political situation for imperial princesses: 2. In the fictional world of Genji: C. Why has Rokuj? decided to go with her? 1. Genji? 2. Guilt? 3. Plot (narrative necessity)? D. The Shrine of the Fields (Nonomiya) 1. Setting of the temporary shrine in the fields [187-88] Melancholy overwhelmed him as soon as he set out across the moor's vast expanse. The autumn fiowers were dying; among the brakes of withering sedge, insect cries were faint and few; and through the wind's sad sighing among the pines there reached him at times the sound of instruments, although so faintly that he could not say what the music was. The scene had an intensely eloquent beauty...With so few people about, a deep quiet reigned, and the thought that she had spent days and months here alone with her cares moved him to a keen sympathy. 2. Issue of Buddhism and Shinto at Ise and Kamo 3. Do they sleep together? [Tyler, trans., 189-90] "No one could ever convey all that passed between those two, who together had known such uncounted sorrows." [Helen McCullough, trans., 188] “Their feelings for each other, Genji's and the lady's, had run the whole range of sorrows and irritations, and no words could suffice for all they wanted to say to each other.” a. use of the term monogatari in Tale of Genji E. What happens to Rokuj? later in the book 1. Chapter 14 "The Pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi" a. Genji returns from a two year exile when his half-brother abdicates the throne; his secret son by Fujitsubo becomes Emperor. b. p. 297 Rokuj? returns with her daughter from Ise and resumes her salon, but although Genji helps her keep track of her property, he does not become intimate with her again. c. Rokuj? suddenly falls ill and becomes a nun; Genji rushes to see her: p. 298 “despite her apparent loneliness she was living very pleasantly when, all at once, she fell gravely ill and sank into such despair that alarm over her years in so sinful a place decided her to become a nun.” (Oblique reference here to the fact that at Ise you cannot perform Buddhist rituals.) "This news brought the astonished Genji to her, for even if they were no longer lovers, she was still someone to talk to, and he wished that she had not done it. His expressions of sympathy and concern were extremly moving. She gave him a seat near her pillow and answered him leaning on an armrest, but even this much made it clear how weak she was, and Genji wept bitterly, fearing that it might be too late for him to assure her of his enduring devotion." d. On her deathbed (pp. 298-300), Rokuj? entrusts her property and her daughter (Akikonomu) to Genji, warning him not to trifle with her. Genji promises he will take care of her interests. 2. How does Genji use Rokuj?'s property and her daughter politically? a. marriage politics 1) [303] discussion with Fujitsubo b. mansion II. Rokuj? after death A. Much later in the book Rokuj? attacks Murasaki and the Third Princess B. When does Murasaki become vulnerable? 1. Who is the third Princess? a. Daughter of the Suzaku Emperor, granddaughter of Kokiden [genealogy] b. 14 when Genji married her, now about 21 2. How has Genji forestalled jealousy among his women after his wife Aoi's death? B. What happens right before Murasaki is possessed? [Helen McCullough, trans., 222] “ The empress's (Akikonomu's) mother, the widow of the crown prince (Rokujô), was a very special person, one who comes to mind at once as an exemplar of refinement and elegance, but I found our association awkward and difficult. Granted that she had a right to resent certain things, it was hard to bear the way she brooded over her grievances and magnified them. It was a tense, embarrassing relationship. Both of us felt too constrained to live together in casual intimacy. I went to great lengths to appear in a good light because I feared her scorn. And so we finally drifted apart. She grieved pathetically because she had left herself open to unpleasant, degrading rumors, and I felt guilty when I thought about her high status. It was to atone for my desertion that I lent my support to her daughter, even though it meant incurring criticism and alienating some people. (Of course, I don't deny that the girl's karma has also had something to do with her success.) I hope the lady thinks more kindly of me now, there in the other world. Past and present, I've indulged in many idle diversions--whims that have put people in pitiful situations and made me regret my behavior.” C. What are her symptoms? 1. Why does Genji move her away from the Rokujô mansion? 2. Etiological or hysterical? D. What are Rokujô's reasons for attacking? [Helen McCullough, trans. p. 226} “What I have to say is solely for his Lordship's ears….I had intended to punish you for the heartlessness with which you and your prayers have harassed me during these last months, but I wouldn't be here if some of my old feelings had not survived the transformation into my present shameful form; after all, I can't ignore the pity I feel, seeing you so distraught that your very life seems at stake; and that's why I've shown myself at last. I had never meant to let you know who I was”…”Flying through the sky, I've watched your care of my daughter, the empress with pleasure and gratitude,” the spirit said, “but I wonder if people may cease to feel any strong attachments, even to their children, once they have left the world of the living. My only impediment to enlightenment is the old bitterness against you. What I've found most offensive hasn't been the way you've slighted and discarded me while I was alive; no, the really hateful thing was the way you called me difficult and disagreeable when you and your lady were talking. I had expected you to forgive my shortcomings after my death--or at least to conceal whatever might have exposed me to disparagement; it's the mortification of that betrayal that has turned me into an avenging spirit and reduced your wife to this extremity. I don't bear her any particular grudge, but your own protection is very strong: I can barely hear your voice, much less get close to you. Please have prayers said to lighten my burden of sin now. Alas! All this hubbub of esoteric rites and sutra readings is merely a torment, a nightmare of engulfing flame; not a word of the sacred texts reaches my ears.” III. Rokujô as a "Madwoman in the Attic" 1. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: idea based on the 19th c. novel Jane Eyre, in which the heroine falls in love with a man who turns out to have a previous wife, who is mad and has been kept hidden in a suite in the attic. 2. Idealized women: a. Angel in the House: b. Madonna in Heaven: 3. Demonized women: Marriage Politics in the last part of Tyler's abridged Tale of Genji I. Genji’s downfall A. Why is Genji exiled? 1. His father, the retired emperor has died. 2. Minister of the Left (his father-in-law) has retired. 3. Affair with Oborozukiyo, consort to the Suzaku Emperor: see genealogy 4. Kokiden and Minister of the Right B. Who stays in contact after his exile? What are the effects later on? 1. T? no Chuj? [p. 248-251] 2. Prince Hyobu (Fujitsubo's brother, Murasaki's father) [p. 244] C. The Akashi Lady 1. How does he meet the Akashi lady? (Suma and Akashi Chapters) a.. Supernatural events[p. 256-58]: D. How does the Akashi lady fit into the types of women discussed in the “Rainy Night Discussion” in The Broom Tree chapter? 1. What other women in the book is she compared to? 2. Why should she be wary of a relationship with Genji?
E. Why does Genji return from exile? 1. Supernatural events: a. Genji's dead father appears in a dream to Genji and to the Suzaku Emperor 2. Real world events: a. Genji's half-brother, the Suzaku Emperor, abdicates after his father-in-law, the Minister of the Right, dies and his mother, Kokiden becomes ill. Genji takes control of the government, ruling as regent through his son (the Reizei Emperor), the product of a secret affair with his father's consort, Fujitsubo. Genji brings back his father-in-law as Minister of the Left, and T? no Chujo rises in rank accordingly. II. Genji’s triumph A. Why is Genji’s marriage to the Akashi lady important to his political comeback? 1. How does he come to marry her? a. Supernatural influence: b. Economic: 1) Example from a chapter we don’t read: Genji visits Akashi lady in Oi, then goes on to Katsura where he puts on a banquet for his friends (Seidensticker translation pp. 342-43) 2) The Rokujô mansion [who is going to pay for it?] B. Marriage politics and Akashi 1. Why does Genji urge the Akashi lady to move back to the capital when she has a daughter? 2. Why is she reluctant to do so? 3. How does she dissipate possible jealousies?
C. How is the Akashi lady a “model” woman in Tale of Genji? 1. How does she pay for her “romantic” relationship with Genji? 2. What might Murasaki Shikibu be telling us about such romantic relationships? D. Chapter 17: "The Picture Contest": clear example of marriage politics disguised as aesthetic competition 1. To no Chujo sends his daughter to be a consort to the Reizei Emperor 2. Genji, in agreement with Fujitsubo, sends Akikonomu to be a consort to the Reizei Emperor 3. Prince Hyobu attempts to send a daughter, but is cut out by Genji. 4. Picture contest: To no Chujo's daughter versus Akikonomu vying for attention of Genji's son, the Reizei Emperor a. probably based on Teishi (Michitaka's daughter) versus Soshi (Michinaga's daughter) in Murasaki Shikibu's time
III. Class Discussion: A. What qualities are considered ideally masculine in the Heian period? 1. How is Genji an ideal man? 2. How is Genji considered not so ideal? B. What qualities are considered ideally feminine? 1. Who is the most ideal woman in Genji? a. What are her qualities? b. What is not so ideal about her? C. What qualities are considered ideal for both men and women? i.e. not considered gender specific? 1. Example: Is aesthetic sensitivity a gendered trait in the Heian period? D. How might the ideals for gender (masculine and feminine) support male privilege and the Heian class system? E. How are these qualities the same or different from normative masculine and feminine stereotypes today? |