JAPNLIT 261: Authorship and Literary Creativity in Early Modern Japan

Instructor: David Atherton
W 12:00pm-2:45pm
Location: TBAThis course explores the nature of authorship and the imagination of literary creativity during Japan’s Edo period (1600-1868). Did poets, playwrights, and commercial writers understand “writing” as something shared among their diverse creative endeavors? To what extent did the theorization of different literary arts involve a shared conceptual vocabulary? How should we understand the gaps between writerly theory and practice? How did literary identities intersect status identities? Did models of creativity from earlier periods shape early modern conceptions of authorship? Can we trace the role of readers and fans in the shaping the figure of the author? How should we understand the striking gender segregation apparent in early modern authorship? We will examine poetic treatises, author biographies, playwrighting manuals, works of fiction, visual representations of writers past and present, encyclopedias and theatrical ephemera, letters, and works of social history concerning status, selfhood, and labor. We will also read select works of literary theory from the classical and medieval periods. Students will gain experience in reading a wide variety of early modern registers and styles will develop a comprehensive grasp of early modern poetic, prose, and theatrical literary production across a broad range of genres.