| 1. |
- Linder, Gunnar Jinmei, 1959-
(author)
-
Deconstructing Tradition in Japanese Music : A Study of Shakuhachi, Historical Authenticity and Transmission of Tradition
- 2012
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the present study I examine the vertical bamboo flute shakuhachi, as an example of how a tradition can be constructed. There are two main issues: the historical authenticity of the believed origins and development of the shakuhachi tradition, and how the transmission of this tradition is conducted.The first main issue is concerned with how a legendary origin, probably constructed in the late seventeenth century, was disproved in early twentieth-century studies. According to this legendary origin, the shakuhachi was connected to Chan (Zen) Buddhism in ninth-century China. It was replaced by a nowadays commonly accepted theory of an indigenous origin, found in both Japanese and English language contemporary writings. I discuss the legend, constructed by the so-called komusō monks of the Edo period (1603–1867), and suggest an alternative explanation of how they became connected to other kinds of medieval monks, so-called boro and komosō. The primary sources relating to the boro and the komosō are discussed. My analyses indicate that the twentieth-century studies created a connection to the boro and komosō as assumed devout Buddhist monks, probably for socio-political reasons.The second main issue concerns how the tradition is transmitted, and the constitutive elements of this transmission. Some Japanese studies discuss the notion of kata – fixed forms implicitly containing essential elements of the ‘tradition’ – as a special feature of Japanese arts. I investigate how transmission is conducted, and argue against the notion that the elements transmitted from teacher to student contain the essence of the tradition. I assert that the concept of fixed forms as a defining characteristic of Japanese traditional arts, should be modified to a more modest ‘character of the music’ on the level of individual transmitters. I discuss the elements that are transmitted, and investigate what it is that constitutes the ‘traditional’ aspects, if any, of this transmission.
|
|
| 2. |
- Jonsson, Herbert
(author)
-
Haikai Poetics : Buson, Kitō and the Interpretation of Renku Poetry
- 2006
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The dissertation is a study of the poetics of haikai in eighteenth-century Japan. It is more specifically concerned with the works of Yosa Buson and some of his followers. Rather than being a study of certain poems, it is an investigation of theories of aesthetics and composition, and of criticism. Most studies of haikai focus on the short haiku (or hokku) form, but the present study is more concerned with the core form of this poetry, the long chains of verses called "renku" or "haikai no renga".One important object of this study is to challenge some of the established views of haikai found in modern scholarship. For this purpose, many standpoints of haikai theory have been found useful, since they often approach questions of interpretation from new and unexpected angles. Theoretical stances that stress convention and traditionalism are criticized and the spirit of haikai is found to be more in concord with theories of cognitive poetics.The dissertation consists of three parts. The first is a study of general haikai theory. In this part are discussed theories of aesthetics, theories of creativity, and a few questions related to the interpretation of this kind of poetry. This discussion focuses on those questions that are central in Buson’s own writing on poetics and puts them into a broader context.The second part deals with practical theories of renku composing. An introductory chapter gives a historical background to many concepts used in Buson’s age, and this is followed by a full translation and critical study of a renku treatise written by his disciple Takai Kitō.The last part is an investigation of modern criticism written on Buson’s renku. All existing full-length studies of these poems are discussed in comparison. The absence of a long critical tradition concerning Buson’s renku has, in many cases, prevented the formation of established interpretations, and this is ideal for a study of this kind.
|
|
| 3. |
- Kuwano Lidén, Mitsuyo, 1969-
(author)
-
Deictic Demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish : First and Third Language Perspectives
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The goal of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the actual, native use of spatial-deictic demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish. Secondly, it investigates and elucidates the interlanguage of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking learners of Japanese regarding their use of Japanese spatial-deictic demonstratives in the light of respective native use and, in comparison to the descriptions of demonstratives in the teaching materials used. Thus, the present study deals with analyses of two sets of empirical data: data produced by native-speaking informants (L1 data) and data produced by language learners (L2 data). These were elicited by Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) designed, collected and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods by the author.The results showed that the actual use of demonstratives by the native informants was not always in accordance with the way described in grammars. The typological similarities between Japanese and Finnish were in this study not reflected in the native use of demonstratives, and some uses were not solely based on the spatial relations between the referent, the speaker and the addressee, but rather on social-interactional factors. The main findings regarding the learner data revealed some differences in the usage rate of the demonstratives between the two Finnish-speaking groups and the one Swedish-speaking learner group studied. There were, however, no particular differences found between them regarding the type of demonstrative used. It is suggested that these differences are first and foremost connected both with the teaching materials used and the more or less heterogeneous linguistic environment in which the learners reside, and only thereafter with the typological similarities or differences between their respective native languages, Finnish and Swedish, and the target language, Japanese.It is further argued that the learners’ use of the different Japanese demonstratives, that is the type of demonstrative used, could be explained in terms of familiarity with the grammar. That is, when the situations used in the DCTs were exemplified in teaching materials and were familiar to them, the learners seemed to use Japanese demonstratives as they are described in the teaching materials and as the native Japanese speakers use them. When the situations used in the DCTs were not exemplified in the teaching materials, the learners seem to rely more on their native language. The results, thus, suggest that the learners’ interlanguage is influenced by the grammar of the target language known to the learners, but also by the number of languages (or varieties) that the learners have contact with at the time of learning.The results of the present study have implications for the teaching of Japanese in at least two ways. Firstly, the importance of grammar instruction must be emphasized since its effect on the learners’ language is apparent. Secondly, the contents of teaching materials should be revised on the basis of the native speakers’ actual use of the grammar.
|
|
| 4. |
- Tsukaguchi-le Grand, Toshiko, 1938-2013
(author)
-
The "Japanese employment system" revisited : gender, work and social order
- 1999
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis is an attempt to examine the influence of cultural elements on the Japanese society of today, especially in regard to social organizations and economic activities. With regard to the framework of analysis, the ie (Japanese family) ideology is applied as a specific key concept, since it is regarded as being of substantial significance as the dominant ideology and as the source of that social order which rules in present-day Japanese society.In the first part, I discuss the derivation and formation of the ie ideology from the Japanese family system, its basic structure and functions, as well as its influence on individuals. 1 also discuss how, as a “natural order of things”, the ie ideology legitimizes the hierarchical order among people and assigns a position to each of them within this hierarchy on the basis of innate characteristics, such as sex.From this perspective - the existence of status and gender hierarchy within the social organisations - I review a well-established concept, what is known as the “Japanese employment system”, which is conceived as mirroring the ie ideology. My intentions here are to examine the characteristics of the employment system and their applicability, as well as to examine that system from the perspective of the individuals who work and live within the framework of this system.The second part of the thesis is mainly based on empirical data from my fieldwork, where the focus is on the inter-company and intra-company relationships: first of all, the nature of the inter-company business transactions are described and analysed as these are configured within subcontracting networks, in which large companies that often act as customers with regard to the small subcontracting ones.When describing and analysing intra-company relationships, recruitment practices and terms of employment of Japanese companies are also viewed as a typical mirror-image of the ie ideology. The construction of the division of labour by sex in Japanese firms is illustrated from a gender perspective.In short, the particular contribution of this thesis is to examine Japanese society in a perspective beyond “economic efficiency” - which has tended to be the most prevalent perspective in analyses of modern Japan.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Jelbring, Stina, 1969-
(author)
-
A Decontextual Stylistics Study of the Genji Monogatari : With a Focus on the "Yûgao" Story
- 2010
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The dominant part of the research on the “Yûgao” (The Twilight Beauty) story of the Japanese eleventh-century classic the Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is philological and often excludes a general literary analysis. This story has also been related to Japanese and Chinese literary influences, thereby placing the text in its literary context. The present study is an attempt to relate it more to theories to which it has hitherto been unrelated and thereby formulate a descriptive stylistics in a decontextual perspective. This aim also includes a look at how the theories confronted with the “Yûgao” story may be affected. First I introduce the problematics of context versus decontext by means of a survey of metapoetical texts about the monogatari (tale, narrative) genre with special regard to the Genji Monogatari. Next I analyze the characters and the setting, primarily using a narratological method. This is followed by an analysis of the story’s themes and motives. Chapter 5 looks at compositional elements, while the starting-point for the succeeding chapter is the interpretation of the “Yûgao” story as more or less a fairytale, and thus not as advanced a narrative as the latter part of the work. I shall, in contrast, argue that there are quite a few aspects of this story that do not fit into the model of the folktale. In Chapter 7 decontextualization as a concept turns from the story as such to address another concept, namely metaphor. Here the meaning of metaphor is expanded in order to include concepts that are not necessarily seen as such. Subsequently, I investigate the symbolic system surrounding the moonflower (yûgao) image. Lastly, the concept of decontext is taken a step further to survey how the genre of the Genji Monogatari has been transformed in the process of translation into the Tale of Genji. The main conclusion is that the “Yûgao” story combines tragic themes with comic motifs to build a symbolic narrative with characters hovering between roles.
|
|
