Hello, and welcome to my blog. This blog will serve as HQ for my fall semester creative writing independent study. For my independent study I plan to do a long-term study on Japanese and other Eastern literature from classical, medieval and modern eras. I will try my hand at various forms of this literature, such as Haikus, Koans, etc. (I'll find out more once I start my research in full.)
Also, I have tentatively planned to take a pause in my research during the month of November to participate in NaNoWriMo, long version – National Novel Writing Month. Details about that can be found here.
Here is a list of authors/works I plan to examine:
Basho (famous haiku writer)
Monzaemon (has been called the Japanese Shakespeare)
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Tao Te Ching by Laozi
Haruki Murakami - A modern Japanese author who draws upon many of the themes of classical Japanese literature.
There is much more. Here is a list of Chinese works and here is a list of Japanese works. I plan to draw heavily from both of these.
This is my plan for now. I anticipate some challenges with the language barrier. I will do some research into translations and which ones are the best, what to avoid, etc. I have also not forgotten the creative writing component of this study. Once I have read a bit and gotten a feel for the literature, I will attempt it myself.
Thanks,
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1 comment:
Hi, Waldo,
Good plan! We have copy of Tales of the Genjii (sp?) in the department bookroom--let me know when you're ready for it if you do not already possess it.
Also, two English teachers in this school may be helpful to you--let's chat. There's also a local university with some Asian literature/language professors. Let me know if you're interested in talking to one of them. We can try.
Do you already know someone else who may be able to help you find stories, etc.?
I'm just not savvy enough to figure out the NaNo... website; however, it strikes me that by then you may be able to combine your purposes and participate as you apply some of the principles you've learned from Japanese and Chinese literature so that you do not feel you are taking on separate tasks.
Your reading list looks great, and you may already know this from David's visit yesterday: as you see renditions of titles that you don't understand, wikipedia can search under those names and give you the English translation--that's what David was doing on my computer.
As we proceed this semester, we'll figure out how I can best be helpful. I'm looking forward to it--
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