Mapping Distinction from Periphery to Center: Narrative Space and Courtly Refinement in The Tale of Genji
Mapping Distinction from Periphery to Center: Narrative Space and Courtly Refinement in The Tale of Genji
Referentin
Berfu Şengün
Datum und Zeit
10. März 2026, 18:00
Ort
Rämistrasse 68, CH-8001 Zürich, Raum RAG-105
Inhalt
Written in the early eleventh century, The Tale of Genji is often regarded as the world’s first novel—a work of remarkable psychological depth and structural sophistication produced at the Heian court. Far from being a simple romance of aristocratic life, it constructs a highly stratified social world in which space, status, and refinement are inseparable. This study examines how grander spatial oppositions, such as center and periphery, establish narrative progression, regulate access to political power and social recognition, and shape the Tamakazura Chapters of the tale. Within these chapters, courtly elegance (miyabi) and rustic provinciality (hinabi) emerge as binary oppositions, shaped through movement, borders, thresholds, and social positioning beyond the narrative setting.
By following Tamakazura’s journey across Kyushu to the capital, this study demonstrates how spatial structures function as narrative tools that produce distinction, superiority, and sustained tension. Drawing on Western narratology and traditional Japanese scholarship, this presentation situates Genji within broader medieval concerns with the center and the periphery, social displacement, and the literary production of hierarchical worlds.
Organisation: Asien Orient Institut - Junge Zürcher Mediävistik