Dr. Sebastian Balmes (University of Zurich) is an up-and-coming scholar, who has been remarkably active in the study of classical Japanese literature, and is attempting to develop new methods of studying classical Japanese literature based on his solid research on literature from the Heian to Kamakura periods, while keeping abreast of recent developments in narratology in Europe. This lecture was an ambitious attempt to show what form a study of the Shintōshū could take if narratology were applied with attention to the characteristics of classical Japanese literature, rather than to derive specific research results using the European method of narratology.
First, Balmes reviewed the origins and recent development of the discipline of narratology, and critically examined the use of narratology in the study of narrative literature in Japan. Then, he emphasized the necessity of updating the narratology of Gérard Genette and others. Balmes then reexamined the fundamental concepts of narratology, such as point of view, narrator, and distance, using the ‘Narrative Engi‘ in Shintōshū, which was compiled in the mid-14th century in accordance with the Honji Suijyaku (manifestation theory). Specifically, Balmes proposed that narrator is originally the level of point of view and that Genette’s definition of distance needs to be revised, and then he proceeded to conduct a specific analysis of the text of Shintōshū.
This lecture was followed by comments from Kazuo Tokuda, an extremely well-known scholar of medieval Japanese setsuwa (anecdotes), otogi-zoshi (fairy tales), and emaki (picture scrolls). Tokuda reviewed the state of research in Japan from the 1970s to the present, and offered his opinions from a wide range of perspectives, including the limitations of such research and the affinity between narratology and the study of setsuwa and emaki. After an exchange between Balmes and Tokuda, a lively question-and-answer session ensued from a variety of perspectives, including narrative literature research, the study of medieval Japanese painting history, and Shintōshū research. This lecture made us aware of the need to share the latest narratology in the study of classical Japanese literature, and the necessity of updating the concepts presented in the previous narratologies. In addition, the participants shared the pleasure of facing the remarkable descriptions in the Shintōshū.
（Written by Hidenori Jinno in Japanese ver.）
Event Overview
- Speaker：Sebastian Balmes（Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at University of Zurich）
- Subject Title： Narratology and Medieval Japanese Literature Issues in Narrative Theory and the ‘Narrative Engi ’of Shintōshū
- Commenter：Kazuo Tokuda（Emeritus professor at Gakushuin Women’s College）
- Closing Remarks：Kimiko Kono（Director of Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture, Professor at Waseda University）
- Moderater：Hidenori Jinno（Professor at Waseda University）
- Number of Participants：41（Students, Faculty 24、Public 17）
- Sponsored by：Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture
