A Proximate Remove: Queering Intimacy and Loss in The Tale of Genji

Reginald Jackson

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2021

A Proximate Remove

Queering Intimacy and Loss in The Tale of Genji

Reginald Jackson

Volume 2 in the series New Interventions in Japanese Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520382558

Overview
Contents

About this book

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

How might queer theory transform our interpretations of medieval Japanese literature and how might this literature reorient the assumptions, priorities, and critical practices of queer theory? Through a close reading of The Tale of Genji, an eleventh-century text that depicts the lifestyles of aristocrats during the Heian period, A Proximate Remove explores this question by mapping the destabilizing aesthetic, affective, and phenomenological dimensions of experiencing intimacy and loss. The spatiotemporal fissures Reginald Jackson calls "proximate removes" suspend belief in prevailing structures. Beyond issues of sexuality, Genji queers in its reluctance to romanticize or reproduce a flawed social order. An understanding of this hesitation enhances how we engage with premodern texts and how we question contemporary disciplinary stances.

Author / Editor information

Jackson Reginald :

Reginald Jackson is Associate Professor of Premodern Japanese Literature and Performance at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Textures of Mourning: Calligraphy, Mortality, and the Tale of Genji Scrolls.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface. Benefits of the Doubt: Questioning Discipline and the Risks of Queer Reading Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Translation Fantasies and False Flags: Desiring and Misreading Queerness in Premodern Japan Open Access Download PDF	31
2. Chivalry in Shambles: Fabricating Manhood amid Architectural Disrepair Open Access Download PDF	64
3. Going through the Motions: Half-Hearted Courtship and the Topology of Queer Shame Open Access Download PDF	87
4. Queer Affections in Exile: Textual Mediation and Exposure at Suma Shore Open Access Download PDF	120
5. From Harsh Stare to Reverberant Caress: Queer Timbres of Mourning in “The Flute” Open Access Download PDF	149
Conclusion. Learning from Loss Open Access Download PDF	173
Afterword. Teaching Removal Open Access Download PDF	183
Notes Open Access Download PDF	185
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	203
Index Open Access Download PDF	215

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 250

eBook

Published: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 9780520382558