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The book describes scenes of Royal and high class people’s lives. One thing that I really like of this book is that I felt the author .read me her stories also felt like I was watching a movie; the author describes scenes very vividly.  It is very surprising that the book was written a thousand years ago but readers still can get impressed by her detailed description of scenes of human lives and nature. Unlike some official and brisk writings written by royals, the book is very personal. It is written by her own view which is a sense of woman, at women world and nature.  Especially, I really like they way she describes the seasons in the beginning of the book.  The narrative  is easeful so easy to read. It is not fancy but  purely and beautifully describing the nature. “ In autumn, the evening- the blazing sun has sunk very close to the mountain rim, and now even the crows, in threes and fours or tows and threes, hurrying to their roost, are a moving sight. Still more enchanting is the sight of a string of wild geese in the distant sky, very tiny. And oh how inexpressible, when the sun has sunk, to hear in the growing darkness the wind, and the song of autumn insects.”  The narrative is very concise but also beautiful so even foreigners feel sympathetic while reading it. ( I could feel some exotic atmosphere while reading the scenes of life in palace though.)

I assume that for women, it would be very hard and limited to advance in society and be professional writers. So, like as Christine de pizan’s case, it is very meaningful that the woman, Sei Shonagon, sought to build her own characterful world through writings in an androcentric society.

• How would you describe the genre(s) of the Pillow Book?
• How are poems and poetry used in the text? What is the place of poetry in Heian court life as depicted in the text?
• Whose values are authorized in The Pillow Book? How does this point of view affect the depiction of others in the text?
• What’s the purpose of the story of Okinamaro, the court dog? Of the begger nun and the snow mountain?
• Look at the various lists in The Pillow Book: “dispiriting things,” “rare things,” “things that are distressing to see,” “endearingly lovely things,” “things that give you pleasure.” What do the things in each of these lists have in common?
• What are your impressions of Sei Shonagon as a writer, and as a character in her own story?

Come up with one question or discussion topic of your own.

The classical Tamil poetry is pre-Hindu and pre-Sanskrit literature with sophisticated methods to represent human experience. It is called cankam poetry, meaning “poetry of the academy.” It is categorized as akam poetry and puran poetry. Akam literally means “interior,” and this genre deals with individuals and their emotions. Love is its frequent theme. There are five types of “interior landscapes,” which express different “phases of love.” “Lovers’ unions” often take place on hillsides at night, “anxious waiting and secret meetings” often take place by the seashore at nightfall, “separation and hardship” often take place at a journey in wilderness under the sun, “patient waiting and happiness in marriage” often take place on the edge of the forest in the evening, and “unfaithfulness after marriage” often takes place on the agricultural lowland in the morning.

This landscape symbolism is applied to the collective Akam poems, “Five Interior Landscapes” For instance, the poetry, under the group of “The Hills” is about lovers’ union. The poetry group under “Seashore” is about anxious love and secret meetings. The poetry, under the group of “Wasteland” is about the young couple, suffering from being separated. The poetry group under “ Forest” is about lovers’ domestic happiness. Finally, the poetry, under the group of “Lowland” is about lovers’ domestic happiness and the anguish, coming from marital infidelity. In other words, this sophisticated landscape symbolism enhanced Tamil love poetry’s capacity to express emotions and experiences.

Note: Since there is no other post about this reading so far, I will respond to the posts about another reading by the next class.

The collection of stories Lady Reason tells to Christine is revolutionary. The women in her tales aren’t portrayed as deceptive and manipulative, good for playing house, making babies, and being shown as trophies. They are noble, strong, and wise while still maintain elegance and charm.

Furthermore, while male characters (so far) have been portrayed as having either valor or wisdom, many of the female characters are well-rounded. Not only do they command respect and authority, they also use their intelligence to guide their power more effectively. Queen Thamaris is described on pg. 792 as “noble” and “as brave as she was wise”. The hot-headed, rash decisions we see in male-dominated epics are not to be found here.

Even the female “wisemen” aren’t limited to one skill. Nicostrata was gifted in divine inspiration and prophesy, laid the foundations of Rome and had the mental prowess to consolidate a language (Latin) with its grammer and syntax that was used as the foundation for many of the popular languages today. (pg 798-799) It seems that women, when they put their minds to good, can have the best of both worlds. Their intelligence guides their power leading to less pride-spurred or rash decisions that they would later regret. This leads, ultimately, to the female heroes having a longer life, greater accomplishments and grander legacy. It’s a shame the legacy is stifled by men too intimidated to uphold it.

• How would you describe the genre of the Book? How does it differ in genre from what we’ve been reading so far?
• The Book makes use of several rhetorical devices you’d expect from a persuasive argument. How many can you find? How effectively are they used by Christine?
• In what specific ways does Christine adapt her classical source material for a Christian audience? (see esp. pp. 791, 799, 801)
• Several of Christine’s heroines are warriors and/or tacticians (Semiramis, the various Amazon queens, Dido). How do their military ethics compare to those of other warriors we’ve read of (Achilles, Beowulf, etc.)?
• Reason advises Christine to read misogynistic texts “to [her] advantage, no matter what the author’s original intention was.” Is this a valid reading strategy? When is it ok to disregard an author’s to suit our own argument?

Shahrazad, daughter of Vizier, decides she wants to sleep with king shahrayar knowing she will be put to death the next morning. Shahrazad was not unfaithful but to save the lives of the young women in the kingdom. For every night, Shahrazad explains in details a story she tells to the king. She became the first women to not die the next morning but in return to be put to death after her stories are finished. Hoping her courageous and fearless act, can change the views of King Shahrayar.

The tale is focused on a man and his brothers known as two dogs. All opened a shop and became shopkeepers. Both the brothers struggling to live, the man provides them with his profit splitting it upon equally. The man encounter a woman and the woman made a request. Marry her and in return reward the man for his kindness and charity. Knowing his two brothers, jealous and envied, attempts to kill both of them. It was the wife (also a she-demon) that saved him and then punished his brothers by having them turned into dogs. Now what is the purpose of this story? Shahrazad speaks all her tales to teach Shahrayar that not all women are bad. We see from the second mans tale the sympathy and successfulness of the man is what made his malicious brothers into dogs. The wife protected her husband.

Through the stories we observe the interaction between the two sexes and the punishment for those who become unfaithful. The Arabian culture emphasizes on their women and how precious they are. shahrazad displays her stories with emphasizes of faitlhful women. In her stories, the women are the ones to show loyalty and happiness to their husbands.

Shahrazad plans to marry the king to hopefully prevent him from marrying and killer more women in the kingdom. Her father, the king’s vizier, knows that she is putting her life at risk and tell her a story called “The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey” where a donkey gives an ox advice, but this ends up having bad consequences for the donkey. The father told this story to try to teach his daughter that unnecessary involvement can make the situation worse. He then tells her  another tale called “The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife” which starts from where the first story left off only teaching a different lesson. It is about the merchant’s wife being curious about why his husband laughed, this led to a series of events which led to the wife being beaten. The moral of this story is that curiosity can lead to a bad outcome.

These two stories are the only ones told by Shahrazad’s father to her, while the rest are told by Shahrazad to the King. The narrative style of these stories is that they are two separate stories teaching different lessons, but one is a continuation of the other. This style is used throughout the 1001 Arabian Nights, since Shahrazad always stops at a cliffhanger to keep the King’s interest, but when she continues telling the stories they have different titles.

The stories also show the geographic location and time period of when these stories were told. This is shown in the story of the merchant and his wife. When everyone knew the merchant was about to die everyone was mourning, but after the merchant beat his wife where he wasn’t forced to reveal his secret, there was celebration because he wasn’t going to die, but also because he properly managed his wife in their eyes. It is obvious that in this time women could have been considered a little more than property and despite the wife being brutally beat this was still a cause for celebration. Also they repeat God many times, which gives an idea about the geographical region the stories take place.

Warrior in quest of fame has to confront fate-1

• Is there any significance for Shaharazad and Shahrayar in the content of the stories, in addition to the strategy involved in telling them?
• Repetition and numbers help to structure the tales, and 3s are especially common structuring elements. How many events occur in 3s in the story? What is the effect of sequences of 3 in the tales?
• Women and “black” men receive particularly troubling portrayals in the frame narrative and in some of these tales. Do you find 1001 Nights racist or sexist? Can we even speak in terms of “racism” and “sexism” as those terms are used today?
• How many different ways is verse used in the tales?
• The “frame narrative” passages between tales are largely repetitive and formulaic, but is there any development of the narrative within those passages? Think especially of the character of King Shahrayar.