Wiebke Denecke
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199971848
- eISBN:
- 9780199346134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199971848.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
What happens if poets socialized in different literary cultures are forced into a comparably shocking situation like exile? This chapter compares the exile poetry of Sugawara no Michizane, a ...
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What happens if poets socialized in different literary cultures are forced into a comparably shocking situation like exile? This chapter compares the exile poetry of Sugawara no Michizane, a prominent statesman and poet, who was degraded to the office of Governor of Dazaifu far away from the capital in 901, with that of Ovid who was banished by Augustus and languished at Tomis on the Black Sea after 8 CE. The chapter shows how distinctly these two poets responded to the creative challenge of exile. Ovid, the poet-provocateur with solid rhetorical training, cast his plaints in strongly addressive epistolary elegy and could not stop himself from constantly pleading with people in Rome to plead for him. But Michizane, the eminent demoted poet-official, preferred musing on plants and plant allegories associated with exiles and recluses in the Chinese tradition. Although personal temperament certainly played a role, these divergences were ultimately rooted in the different social status of poets in Heian and Augustan society, and in the different rhetorical tools, poetic and mythological lore, and traditions of exile poetry the poets had at their disposition.Less
What happens if poets socialized in different literary cultures are forced into a comparably shocking situation like exile? This chapter compares the exile poetry of Sugawara no Michizane, a prominent statesman and poet, who was degraded to the office of Governor of Dazaifu far away from the capital in 901, with that of Ovid who was banished by Augustus and languished at Tomis on the Black Sea after 8 CE. The chapter shows how distinctly these two poets responded to the creative challenge of exile. Ovid, the poet-provocateur with solid rhetorical training, cast his plaints in strongly addressive epistolary elegy and could not stop himself from constantly pleading with people in Rome to plead for him. But Michizane, the eminent demoted poet-official, preferred musing on plants and plant allegories associated with exiles and recluses in the Chinese tradition. Although personal temperament certainly played a role, these divergences were ultimately rooted in the different social status of poets in Heian and Augustan society, and in the different rhetorical tools, poetic and mythological lore, and traditions of exile poetry the poets had at their disposition.
Laura Nenzi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839574
- eISBN:
- 9780824869656
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839574.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Presents Tokiko’s cosmology and her view of the heavens as the place where the rectification of the world’s chaos would begin. By envisioning a link between her personal body and the body of the ...
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Presents Tokiko’s cosmology and her view of the heavens as the place where the rectification of the world’s chaos would begin. By envisioning a link between her personal body and the body of the realm Tokiko claimed a pivotal role as healer of the country writ large, illuminating a new strategy through which women in nineteenth-century Japan could chart paths of political action. The chapter also compares Tokiko’s spiritualism to that of the new religions of the late Tokugawa.Less
Presents Tokiko’s cosmology and her view of the heavens as the place where the rectification of the world’s chaos would begin. By envisioning a link between her personal body and the body of the realm Tokiko claimed a pivotal role as healer of the country writ large, illuminating a new strategy through which women in nineteenth-century Japan could chart paths of political action. The chapter also compares Tokiko’s spiritualism to that of the new religions of the late Tokugawa.
Laura Nenzi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839574
- eISBN:
- 9780824869656
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839574.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter follows Tokiko’s 1859 journey to and sojourn in Kyoto, challenging the common view that she accomplished the mission entirely alone. Both her political awakening and her feats of ...
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This chapter follows Tokiko’s 1859 journey to and sojourn in Kyoto, challenging the common view that she accomplished the mission entirely alone. Both her political awakening and her feats of activism occurred within the safety net of poetic/loyalist circles, the members of which offered information and support.Less
This chapter follows Tokiko’s 1859 journey to and sojourn in Kyoto, challenging the common view that she accomplished the mission entirely alone. Both her political awakening and her feats of activism occurred within the safety net of poetic/loyalist circles, the members of which offered information and support.
