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.
11/18 Discussion Leaders Assignment
November 17, 2014 Written by Mel Gili Zhu | 2 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Discussion Leader Assignment
2 responses so far ↓
lb153586 // Nov 19th 2014 at 2:42 pm
I enjoyed how one of your main focuses was on the fact that Tsurayuki wrote as a woman as man. When I was reading the text for the first time, I found this so curious because it’s a very complex gender statement that reminded me of Orlando and City of Ladies. I also enjoyed the discussion on if Tsurayuki wrote openly as a man if he would have been less sensitive or emotional.
f.godefroy // Dec 2nd 2014 at 11:39 am
I did not read the introduction of the Tosa Diary so I had no idea that a male author was telling the story through a woman’s voice. It was interesting to go back and have a different point of view of the text while it was discussed in class.