Eng2800: Mapping the Ancient World

Michelle and I will be discussing Ki no Tsurayuki’s Tosa Diary (Nikki) . Ki no Tsurayuki’s Tosa Diary is a poetic diary that is a creative non-fiction account of his 55 days of travel, narrated using a female persona. We will focus mostly on the narration and poetry. We will address how sex and gender affects how one writes poetry and reflects an individual’s voice. We will explore why Tsurayuki would write in a female voice instead of a male voice to narrate his story. We will discuss some of the poems that was in the reading and your individual thoughts on it. We will also be discussing the scholarly article, “Writing Like a Man: Poetic Literacy, Textual Property, and Gender in the Tosa Diary”by Gustav Heldt . This article’s central argument is the relations of writing associated with gender and social status in the Tosa Diary. It questions the reasons behind the text creation based on social conditions and authorship.

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In The Footsteps of Ibn Battuta‎’s Hajj

Hi, my name is Mel Gili Zhu. I am majoring in accounting and plan to minor in finance or computer science. My favorite book is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. I hope to get along with everyone in ENG 2800.