Make sure that you give me plenty of concrete examples and quotations from the readings to support your points, and that you cite your sources with page numbers (see the "citation form" section under "General Points about Papers"). If you're not sure what "citing your sources" means, click here.

Answer this question in 1 to 2 pages (30%):

1. Discuss how the Edo period concept of onnarashisa (female-likeness, or femininity) plays itself out in Kabuki (Love Suicides at Amijima). Begin with a definition of onnarashisa. To what extent do characters such as Osan and Koharu (Love Suicides at Amijima) embody the ideals of onnarashisa/femininity laid out in Neo-Confucian/Shingaku texts? Make sure you provide quotations from Love Suicides that support your argument. Helpful readings for framing the argument: Robertson (Shingaku Woman article), Bernstein.

Pick ONE of the following and write a 3 to 5 page response (70%) :

1. Cross-dressing appears again and again in Japanese literature and drama from the Kamakura period onward. Do cross-dressing characters and actors (as in the Kamakura period tales Torikaebaya and Ariake no wakare, Edo period Kabuki onnagata, Takarazuka otokoyaku, Rose of Versailles) contribute to the destabilization of the distinction between gender and biological sex? To what extent does each reinforce the dominant gender roles roles of their time? To what extent do they subvert them? Make sure you explain why for each form (Kamakura tales, Kabuki onnagata, Takarazuka otokoyaku) using examples and quotations from the texts to support your points. Helpful readings for framing the argument: Tonomura, Bernstein, Robertson (Shingaku), Yoshizawa Ayame's "Actor's Analects," Brau.

2. In Enchi Fumiko's Masks the women characters aren't allowed to express themselves directly, or have little recourse to positive action. Enchi turned to Rokujô as she appears in Tale of Genji and the Noh plays Aoi no ue and Nonomiya to provide a fantasy alternative to the dominant patriarchy. In so doing, she used a character that was developed in very different historical contexts (the Heian and Muromachi periods). How is the character of the jealous woman (as exemplified by Rokujô) changed by her insertion into contemporary fiction? What remains of her old character? What possible function might demonic possession have for women (both the women who "demonically possess" others and the women who become "possessed) in the Tale of Genji and the Noh compared to Masks? (Note that Enchi clearly prefers one of the Noh plays to the other.) Points you might consider: authorship; audience; goals; the changed historical context. Helpful texts for framing the argument: McCullough "Marriage Institutions," Tonomura, Bernstein.