2025: Time and Emotion in Medieval Japanese Literature (25–26 August)
Date
25–26 August 2025
Venue
University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59, Room RAA E-30, CH-8001 Zurich
Organization
Simone Müller, Sebastian Balmes, Léo Messerschmid, Nathalie Phillips und Berfu Sengün (University of Zurich)
Contact
Support
This workshop is organized with the support of
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- UZH Alumni
- Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences
- UZH Foundation
Abstract
Following the loss of political power by the aristocracy, medieval Japan (12th–16th centuries) was significantly shaped by the newly emerging warrior class and its military conflicts. However, literary texts repeatedly express a sense of nostalgia for the preceding courtly era. Furthermore, new Buddhist movements emerged that retained transience as a core concept but drew new conclusions from it. Thus, the epoch was permeated by different conceptions of time, which exerted a profound influence on its literature. The purpose of the workshop is to examine these conceptions of time, placing particular emphasis on their emotional dimension. It seeks to discuss various aspects of time and emotion in different literary genres, as well as in the social and imaginary spaces associated with them, including court narratives, along with diaries, travel literature and poetry (court and boudoir), historical and war tales (warrior clans and battlefields), recluse literature (travel and hermitage), legends and didactic tales (sacred spaces and fantastic worlds), as well as visual and performing arts (theater, recitation, and illustrated handscrolls). The key questions addressed in the papers are: How are perceptions of time represented in literature, and how are they connected to culture, society, and religion? What role did aspects such as gender and social status play in influencing literary representations of time? How did the literary engagement with time, in turn, shape literary works and genres, and which time-related motifs proved particularly productive? How did these literary and artistic objectifications give rise to emotional communities and discourses?
Program
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Monday, August 25 |
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9:00–9:10 |
Welcome Address |
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Court Narratives |
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9:10–10:20 |
Jinno Hidenori “Flowing Time, Reversed Time: Narrative Temporality in the ‘Aoi’ and ‘Sakaki’ Chapters of The Tale of Genji” (comments by: Simone Müller) Simone Müller “Blurred Temporalities: The Past in the Present in the Matsura no miya monogatari (The Tale of Matsura)” (comments by: Jinno Hidenori) |
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10:20–10:50 |
Coffee Break |
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Diaries |
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10:50–12:15 |
Christina Laffin “Wondering If They Felt the Same: Rupture and Emotional Community in Towazugatari (The Unrequested Tale)” (comments by: Simone Müller) Mina Akaishi (online) and Simone Müller “Time Perceived, Felt, and Envisioned: Temporal Sensations and Cognition in Three Medieval Court Diaries” (comments by: Christina Laffin) Matsuzono Hitoshi “Time-related Problems in Sinitic Diaries: The Case of Kanmon nikki” (koramu) (comments by: Daniel Schley) |
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12:15–13:50 |
Lunch Break |
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Historical Narratives and War Tales |
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13:50–15:50 |
Daniel Schley “Some Considerations on the Emotional Perceptions of Past and Present in the Fusō Ryakki” (comments by: Michael Watson) Erin Brightwell “Dispassionate Time-Keeping: Ima kagami and the Tales it Isn’t” (comments by: Daniel Schley) Michael Watson “Past, Present, and Future, too: Temporal and Emotive Expressions in the War Tales” (comments by: Erin Brightwell) Roberta Strippoli “Kenreimon’in in Ōhara: Reflecting on the Past, Awaiting Salvation” (koramu) (comments by: Michael Watson) |
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15:50–16:20 |
Coffee Break |
| Recluse Literature and Time in Law | |
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16:20–17:45 |
Araki Hiroshi “Timeless in Time: Rethinking Impermanence in the Tsurezuregusa, Hōjōki, and Uji shūi monogatari” (comments by: Carina Roth) Carina Roth “Pragmatic Premonitions: Dreams and Oracles in the Writings of Shōgetsubō Keisei” (comments by: Araki Hiroshi) Vyjayanthi Selinger (online) “Time in Law, Time in Theater: Traveling Concepts about Felt Time in Genzai nō (Present time nō)” (comments by: Michael Watson) |
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18:15 |
Dinner |
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Tuesday, August 26 |
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Poetry |
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9:00–10:25 |
Edward Kamens “A Rusted Lock”: The Poetics of Time’s Passage in Waka and Monogatari” (comments by: Tabuchi Kumiko) Tabuchi Kumiko (online) “Time and Emotion in the Love Poems of the Shinchokusen wakashū (New Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poems): Reading Fujiwara no Teika’s Intention of Arrangement” (comments by: Edward Kamens) Heidi Buck-Albulet “Jukkai (‘lament’) in Renga Poetry: A Very Short History” (koramu) (comments by: Roberta Strippoli) |
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10:25–10:50 |
Coffee Break |
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Legendary and Didactic Tales |
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10:50–12:15 |
Léo Messerschmid “On the Right Use of Lifetime and the Idea of Kairos in the Konjaku monogatari shū” (comments by: Nathalie Phillips) Nathalie Phillips “Blossoms in Winter, Snow in Summer: Abiding Realms and Transcendent Temporalities in Medieval Japanese Tales” (comments by: Léo Messerschmid) Ishikawa Tōru “On the Hōraisan (Mount Penglai)” (koramu) (comments by: Nathalie Phillips) |
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12:15–13:15 |
Lunch Break |
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Origin Tales |
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13:15–14:25 |
Sebastian Balmes “The Narrative Potential of Time and Emotion in the Engi of Shintōshū” (comments by: Yamamoto Satomi) Yamamoto Satomi “Illustrated Handscrolls as Discourses of Time and Emotion: Women Longing for Awakening” (comments by: Sebastian Balmes) |
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14:25–14:55 |
Coffee Break |
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Performing Arts |
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14:55–16:40 |
Takeuchi Akiko “Staging Transcendental Temporality: Time, Emotions, and Illusory Landscapes in Noh Tōru and Taema” (comments by: Keller Kimbrough) Raji C. Steineck “Time, Place and Emotion in Zeami’s Swan Song Kintōshō (Golden Island)” (comments by: Takeuchi Akiko) Keller Kimbrough “Narrating the Future: Time and Prophecy in the Medieval Recitative Performing Arts” (comments by: Raji C. Steineck) |
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16:40–17:00 |
Closing Discussion |
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18:30 |
Dinner |
