Love and Scholarship in The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji 209 advancing is that in the act of exploring and experimenting with language, novelists create worlds of aesthetic possibility, worlds that cannot be presupposed by a general theory of language. In other words, the supposition that some overall theory can account for the richness of stylistic diversity is, in our view, untenable. Suppose, [or example, that the formal features of dialect in Wuthering Heightsand in Lady Chatterley's Lover were nearly identical, that in some instances even the phrasing was indistinguishable. None the less, it is our contention that the stylistic function of dialect in the two novels, everything else remaining the same, would be sharply different. And if it were, then no theory of language, dependent on formalisms, could in itself account for this difference. If our view is correct, then the purpose of an introductory text on stylistics is not to couch texts within theory, as the two books under review do; its purpose, instead, is to seek to engage students in the stylistically diverse worlds of fiction. The practical task is to choose texts that can sharpen sensibilities, that can encourage students to raise pertinent questions. From Linguistics for Students of Literature and from Style in Fiction one can derive some benefits in the modes of presenting topics for study. Yet the design of chapters to present students with ways to advance topicS and to develop arguments needs reconsideration. The upshot is that the two books, so fully committed to theoretical formalisms, teach an unexpected lesson: no one ought any longer write a textbook relying mainly on linguistics as a discipline in order to show students how to approach the language of literature. Love and Scholarship in The Tale of Getlji DAVID WATERHOUSE Andrew Pekarik, ed. Ukifune. Love in 'The Tale of Genji.' New York: Columbia University Press 1982. xvi, 278, illus. $25.00 At first sight, the notion of an entire book of essays devoted to a single chapter in a Japanese novel must seem quixotic, even to those who are inured to the inbred ways of modern literary scholarship. Nevertheless this collection deserves the attention of the general reader, and not least because of the intrinsic attraction of its subject matter. The Tale of Genji Gapanese Genji monogatari), by Murasaki Shikibu (978- 10,6), is one of the greatworld novels; and it is accessible to English readers through the classic translation by Arthur WaJey and the recent one by Edward Seidensticker (himself a contributor to this collection). Since its composition in the early eleventh century, The Tale ofGenji has spawned a host ofexegeses in Japan itself, one of the most elaborate in pre-modern times being that of the eighteenth-century nationalist scholar Motoori Norinaga. Motoori also gave a lecture course on the novel, which is said to have lasted for eight years and to have been offered three times during his life. Modern commentaries and other aids UNIVERSJTY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, VOLUME 53, NUMBER 2, WINTER 198)/4 210 DAVID WATERHOUSE abound, as do translations into modem Japanese, the original being written in a subtle and opaque cJassicallanguage, which today even educated Japanese are scarcely able to follow. The contributors to the volume under review take account of this long tradition of scholarship, and the essays display an impressive command of the field. At the same time their point of view is that of the late twentieth century, and they raise questions which go beyond those of the traditional criticism. The Ukifune chapter is no. 51 of the 54 which constitute this immense novel;and its pivotal role and dramatic tension are emphasized by several contributors. The present book was the brain-child of the great Japanologist Ivan Morris, who died at the height of his powers and productivity when only fifty-one, leaving its completion in the hands of his pupil Andrew Pekarik. Pekarik, who provides it with various editorial aids, including some useful appendixes, has made up one essay from notes left by Morris. It is natural to turn first to this essay to learn why Ukifune deserves to be singled out. Ukifune, write Morris and Pekarik, 'is a dramatic illustration of the extent to which ego-centered...