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Rape in the Tale of Genji

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Rape in the Tale of Genji SWEAT, TEARS AND NIGHTMARES: TEXTUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN HEIAN AND KAMAKURA MONOGATARI by OTILIA CLARA MILUTIN B.A., The University of Bucharest, 2003 M.A., The University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2008 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2015 ©Otilia Clara Milutin 2015 Abstract Readers and scholars of monogatari—court tales written between the ninth and the early twelfth century (during the Heian and Kamakura periods)—have generally agreed that much of their focus is on amorous encounters. They have, however, rarely addressed the question of whether these encounters are mutually desirable or, on the contrary, uninvited and therefore aggressive. For fear of anachronism, the topic of sexual violence has not been commonly pursued in the analyses of monogatari. I argue that not only can the phenomenon of sexual violence be clearly defined in the context of the monogatari genre, by drawing on contemporary feminist theories and philosophical debates, but also that it is easily identifiable within the text of these tales, by virtue of the coherent and cohesive patterns used to represent it. In my analysis of seven monogatari—Taketori, Utsuho, Ochikubo, Genji, Yoru no Nezame, Torikaebaya and Ariake no wakare—I follow the development of the textual representations of sexual violence and analyze them in relation to the role of these tales in supporting or subverting existing gender hierarchies. Finally, I examine the connection between representations of sexual violence and the monogatari genre itself. By drawing on an extensive comparative approach that contrasts the Japanese monogatari with the Western genres of fairy tale, novel, romance and fan fiction, I argue that female readers and writers of monogatari could only address the topic of sexual violence within the confines of a genre avowedly fictitious, which, precisely because of its fictitiousness, provided a textual safe space. ii Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author Otilia Clara Milutin. I have conceived the project in its present form, as the next step to my previous research on kidnapping and abduction in The Tale of Genji, after extensive consultation with my adviser, Joshua S. Mostow. I have selected the texts I am analyzing here while in Tokyo, on a Japan Foundation Fellowship, working with Mitamura Masako, who guided and helped me with the genbun—original text—of these tales. The selections from the tales used here were either manually or digitally input, using the Shinpen Nihon koten bugaku zenshū database, available from JapanKnowledge. Unless otherwise specified in the footnotes, all translations included in this study are mine. For the most part, I have translated only those episodes of direct importance to my argument, that is, those episodes involving sexual violence and mutually desirable sexual encounters. I have also not translated anew epigraphs, other quotations from the selected texts, and quotations from texts not directly relevant to the topic of sexual violence. For six of the seven tales included here, I have relied on the Shin Nihon koten bungaku zenshū editions (both digital and hard copies). In the case of Ariake no wakare, which has not yet been included in this series, I have used Ōtsuki Ōsamu’s 1979 Ariake no wakare: aru dansō no himegimi no monogatari. In addition, I have consulted all available translations in English and, where possible, French, listed in the bibliography. The original text is romanized using the historical kana usage (kyū-kanazukai), while proper names and titles follow the Hepburn Romanization (e.g., Torikaebaya, Yowa no Nezame, Towazugatari). iii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Preface ............................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ viii Dedication ...........................................................................................................................x 1. Introduction: Rape across Time ...................................................................................1 1. 1. The Ugly Beautiful World of Japanese Monogatari .......................................1 1. 2. Overview of the Study .....................................................................................4 1. 3. Contemporary Theories of Rape ......................................................................6 1. 3. 1. Rape Between Sex and Violence .....................................................6 1. 3. 1. 1. Brownmiller and Liberal Feminist Theory ............................6 1. 3. 1. 2. MacKinnon, Dworkin and Radical Feminist Theory ...........10 1. 3. 1. 3. Recent Developments in Feminist Theories of Rape ...........14 1. 3. 2. Rape Between Coercion and Consent ............................................21 1. 3. 2. 1. The Preeminence of Consent ...............................................21 1. 3. 2. 2. The Preeminence of Coercion ..............................................28 1. 4. Theories of Rape and Pre-modern Japanese Literature .................................36 1. 5. The Terminology of Sexual Violence and Rape in Japanese Tale Literature.... ................................................................................................................................46 iv 2. “Turning into a Shadow”: Representations of Rape in Pre-Genji Monogatari Tales ............................................................................................................................................50 2. 1. A History of the Monogatari Genre...............................................................50 2. 2. The Disappearing Heroine: Textual Management of Rape in Taketori monogatari ........................................................................................................60 2. 3. The Sound of Silence: Contrasting Femininities and Conspicuous Absences in Utsuho monogatari ..........................................................................................68 2. 4. Sweat and Tears: Domesticating Rape in Ochikubo monogatari ..................85 3. “Assaulted by an Evil Spirit in a Nightmare”: Rape in The Tale of Genji ...........103 3. 1. The World’s First Novel ..............................................................................103 3. 2. “Genji-Haters,” “Genji-Lovers” and the Rape Controversy ........................113 3. 3. Rape and the Shining Prince ........................................................................126 3. 3. 1. Feminine Resistance: Utsusemi and Murasaki ............................126 3. 3. 2. Feminine Desire: Nokiba no Ogi and Oborozukiyo ....................156 3. 3. 3. Rape and Genji’s Descendants ....................................................174 4. “Powerless and Ashamed”: Representations of Sexual Violence in Post-Genji Court Tales ..........................................................................................................................193 4. 1. Less Than a Novel: Western Popular Romances and Post-Genji Tales ......193 4. 2. Young Bamboo and Willow Branches: Rewriting Genji Rape in Yoru no nezame .........................................................................................................................206 4. 3. The Curious Case of the Two Naishi no Kami: Rape and Im/penetrable Bodies in Torikaebaya monogatari ...........................................................................232 4. 4. Female Powerlessness and Rape as a Tool of Sexual Regulation in Ariake no v wakare .............................................................................................................252 5. Conclusion. Reading Monogatari, Writing Rape: The Monogatari Genre and Its Representations of Sexual Violence ..............................................................................261 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................284 Appendix: Original Texts ..............................................................................................317 vi List of Tables Table 2. 1. Typical monogatari vs. Utsuho patterns of sexual violence ..........................75 Table 2. 2. Ochikubo monogatari ....................................................................................90 Table 3. 1. Utsusemi ........................................................................................................131 Table 3. 2. Murasaki ........................................................................................................149 Table 3. 3. Nokiba no ogi .................................................................................................162 Table 3. 4. Oborozukiyo ..................................................................................................168 Table 3. 5. Nokiba, Oborozukiyo,
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