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Time and Emotion in Medieval Japanese Literature

Panels at Conferences

The 18th Annual Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS): Asian Temporalities: Chronologies, Seasons, Tenses

November 22–23, 2024 in Olomouc, Czech Republic

Panel: Temporal Morphologies, Layers, and Cognition: Narratological and Metaphorical Aspects of Time in Classical and Medieval Japanese Literature
Chair: Simone Müller

Panel description: The panel aims to explore different morphologies of time, temporal layers, and cognitive aspects of time in classical and medieval Japanese literature. Through the examination of narrative structures and temporal metaphors in various literary genres, we seek to determine whether time is depicted as cyclical, alternating, or linear, whether the texts focus on the past, present, or future, and how time is cognitively experienced in terms of duration (stretched or compressed). The first presentation by Berfu Sengün analyzes narrative temporalities in the Heian court novel The Tale of Genji using Genette’s categories of order, duration, and frequency. Simone Müller’s paper moves on to an investigation of various morphologies of time and temporal layers in medieval court literature by examining the narrative structure and temporal metaphors of three works from the late Kamakura period. The closing presentation by Nathalie Phillips examines cognitive experiences of time and temporal discrepancies in three tales from the Muromachi period, focusing on their language, metaphors, and narrative features. Through these case studies, we aim to determine if the temporal morphologies and layers in classical and medieval Japanese literary works are genre- or gender-specific, and how these differences relate to the texts’ functions.

Presentations:
Berfu Sengün: Narrative Temporality in the Tamakazura Chapters of The Tale of Genji

Simone Müller: Variant Morphologies of Time in Court Diaries and Ceremonial Works
of the Late Kamakura Period

Nathalie Phillips: Journeys to Other Worlds: Temporal Discrepancies and Multiple Temporalities in Medieval Japanese Tales

16th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)

17. - 20. of August 2023 at Ghent University
 
Panel: Time Perception in Medieval Japanese Texts
Discussant: Prof. Araki Hiroshi
 
Presentations:
Daniel Schley: "Perceptions of the past in Japanese court writings at the turn of the 12th century"
Abstract: I discuss the relationship of narratives with historical experience by examination of expressions for the past in court historiography and diaries. These texts give evidence of a new historical awareness I approach by investigating temporal aspects in regard to genre, social background, and purpose.
 
Nathalie Phillips: "Suspended in time: human lives between transience and longevity in mdieval Japanse tales"
Abstract: Scattered comments regarding the perceived brevity of human life appear in medieval tales where encounters with other worlds and forms of existence betoken a vast cosmological framework. How do such tales reflect the relative position of humans within it and articulate layers of temporality?
 
Simone Müller: "Time perceived, felt, and envisioned: temporal sensations and cognition in three medieval court diaries"
Abstract: Medieval court ladies’ diaries reflect the same social background, but they vary in terms of how they figuratively map time and shape emotional communities. Such aesthetic objectifications of temporal sensations can be decoded by focusing on the works’ poems using cognitive linguistic approaches.
(find the more detailed abstracts here)