Open Access Publication "Author, Narrator, and Character in Japanese Literature to 1900"

[Sebastian Balmes]

Dear PMJS Members,

Please allow me to announce the publication of an Open Access special issue on "Author, Narrator, and Character in Japanese Literature to 1900" (= Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 79.3).

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/asia/79/3/html

As a form of art, literature is always concerned with human experience. The human agents inscribed in works of literature are commonly divided into several levels, the main categories being author, narrator (or lyrical subject), and character. The six articles published in this special issue focus on different aspects of these categories and cover a wide variety of sources from the eighth to the nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Sebastian Balmes: Inscribed Personalities: Thoughts on Author, Narrator, and Character as One Continuum in Premodern Japanese Literature

Robert F. Wittkamp: Zwischen Autor und erzähltem Ich – Zu den Instanzen der Medialität in der narrativen Man’yōshū-Dichtung

Berfu Şengün: Tamakazura and the Unfinished Self: A Narratological Study of Character Formation, Agency, and Liminality in The Tale of Genji

Jan-Patrick Proost: Böser Mensch, guter Mönch? Der literarische Typus des verwegenen Mönchs am Beispiel der transtextuellen Figuren Mongaku und Benkei

Kazuya Sugiyama: Asaina’s “Wrecking of Hell”: Exploring the Formation of a Literary Character

Guido Woldering: Schreiben, um das Leben zu verändern oder um es zu ergründen? Zur gegenseitigen Durchdringung von Leben und Literatur im japanischen Jinsei-sōshō-Disput (1893) und zu dessen „westlichen“ sowie „östlichen“ Quellen

We sincerely hope that some of the articles will be of interest to PMJS members.

Best regards,

Sebastian Balmes

Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer
Postdoc, SNSF project "Time and Emotion in Medieval Japanese Literature"
Department of Japanese Studies, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies
University of Zurich