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SEMINAR VI CHAPTERS 51-54 |
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KAGEROO
The ceremony of the hakoo (Eight Lectures) on the Buddhist life according to the Lotus Sutra initiated by the Akashi Empress to honor the memory of her father Genji and Murasaki concludes on a hot summer day, and the First Princess and the Second Princess play with blocks of ice. Kaoru oversees this. "As for his vulgar, literal-minded gesture of dressing his wife in the hopes of making her into the real thing--is it not here, far more than in the pathetic playing-at-being-aristocrats of Ukifune's new household, that we sense the irremediable shattering of a world?" p. 295 "The old imperial longing, so grandly expressed by his real and adoptive fathers, has shriveled into a fetish with Kaoru." p. 294.
TENARAI
What and who do you make of the spirit possession that leads Ukifune to commit suicide? p.,280-81
Kaoru is a bifurcated person in almost all respects, multifaceted even...."Kaoru, the proper(true)hero, who is vicariously fragmented into the three roles of exorcist, hero, and possessing spirit." Lay sainthood offers no luminous unity. p. 283.
"The trouble with this radiant creature is that she can neither fly to the moon (Kaguyahime) nor die a simple earthly death (Murasaki no Ue), having tried once and failed. And thus the question is posed: how to live on without an other world to flee to." p. 285
Ukifune writes 12 poems in this chapter, 9 of which lack an addressee. p. 293. Compare to Genji's12 solitary poems out of 17 in the chapter Maboroshi, his last. "Whereas Genji's poems, both solitary and exchange, followed the order of the seasonal books of the imperial anthologies, Ukifune's respect no such order." p. 293
YUME NO UKIHASHI
Ukifune's poems on pp.1069-70 after she takes her vows give evidence of her discovery of language, that is, Ukifune begins to have a voice of her own, known for who she is, not how she is perceived in male eyes. p. 286
Ukifune is the most prolific poet of women in The Tale of Genji. "Ukifune never initiates exchanges with men." p. 287
Ranking of women poets according to the number of poems written:
Ukifune- 26
Murasaki no ue - 23
Akashi Lady - 22
Tamakazura - 20
Nakanokimi - 19
Oigimi - 13
Fujitsubo - 12
Rokujo Lady - 11
The material 'mi' meaning body occurs 8 times, but 'kokoro' or mind occurs only 3 times. p. 289.
"{Ukifune}She is the last of the Genji women, undeniably arresting in her own right, but barely recognizable as a heroine according to the earlier terms of the tale." p. 293. Think about what those terms were, and what they are now for Ukifune.
"The four beautiful deaths--of Fujitsubo, Kashiwagi, Murasaki, and Oigimi--show the usefulness of poetic language in camouflaging excess...." p. 295 Ukifune does not die. Think of what this means. "Ukifune is, finally, the homeless one, the one with no place, not even death, to vanish to." p. 296.
The boundaries of the Tale of Genji as suggested on p. 296:
Kingdom of myth (Kojiki and such)--the archaic (formulaic writing such as the Korean prophet in the first chapter, the use of coincidence (Hatsuse meetings, for example)--the religious(leave it to you to decide)--the medieval(discuss what this means in the terms of The Tale of Genji). Solitude, solipcism, narcissism, existential paranoia, etc.