75 The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Arts, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With a strong claim to be the first novel in history, the Japanese classic The Tale of Genji (ca. 1001-1012), by Murasaki Shikibu, or Lady Murasaki, is one of the world’s greatest literary masterpieces. But who was Lady Murasaki, and what compelled her to write this story of an idealized prince and his many lovers? How innovative was she? And do the intrigues of the imperial Japanese courts from a thousand years ago still have the power to fascinate, entertain, and instruct us today? Show Notes: Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at 1-361-4WILSON (1-361-494-5766). You can find more literary discussion at jackewilson.com and more episodes of the series at historyofliterature.com. Check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/historyofliterature. On Twitter, you can follow Jacke Wilson at his handle @WriterJacke. You can also follow Mike and the Literature Supporters Club (and receive daily book recommendations) by looking for @literature SC. Music Credits: “Handel – Entrance to the Queen of Sheba” by Advent Chamber Orchestra (From the Free Music Archive / CC by SA). “Ritual” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, a thousand years ago, a young woman living in the courts of Imperial Japan began writing about an idealized prince named Genji.
0:18.0	Her name, as it has come to be known, was Murasaki Shikubu, or or Lady Murasaki and the book she wrote the
0:25.2	tale of Genji is argued by many to be the world's first novel.
0:30.1	Who was Lady Murasaki and what compelled her to write this story?
0:34.0	What kind of society did she live in?
0:36.2	And what kind of world did her novel portray?
0:39.3	And finally, what kind of influence did the tale of Genji have and what, if anything, can we take from her work today?
0:46.0	We're discussing the Japanese masterpiece The Tale of Genji today on the history of literature.
0:53.0	Okay, here we go.
0:54.0	Gengi. Okay, here we go. Genji! What a treat. This is, well, there are times when you jump into a world because that's the world you want to spend time in.
1:14.0	For me, that's the world of Graham Green, John Lecare.
1:19.8	The European world spies and intrigue, Cold War and then there are worlds that pull you in
1:27.2	Like the world of Marcel Proust where you wind up there almost in spite of yourself
1:33.0	John Cheever is a line about this in his letters that I've never forgotten.
1:37.0	He was writing to someone about Nabokov.
1:39.0	And he said, he admired Nabokov, but the sensibility was different.
1:44.0	Nabokov was a Russian aristocrat polished in Paris.
1:48.5	And Cheever said,
1:49.5	I grew up in a house where my father hung his underwear on a nail on the bathroom door.
1:55.3	It's a great line, and it gives us a window in achiever and how achiever viewed himself.
2:01.4	He can't be too literary, too imaginative, too into the gamesmanship of literature and language.
	...

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