The Tale of Genji (link to reading - read only the Preface and Chapter IV)
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Date: c. 11th century CE
Location: Japan
Course Unit: Women
Context:
"It is, however, certain that Murasaki was born in the last quarter of the tenth century, that she lost her husband in 1001, and that a few years later she became lady-in-waiting to the Empress Akiko. We know that she was chosen for this post on account of her proficiency in Chinese, a subject which the young Empress was anxious to study. Akiko was then about sixteen, so that Murasaki’s position in the house was what, in our parlance, we should call that of ‘governess’ rather than of lady-in-waiting [...] Was the Tale of Genji or any part of it already written when Murasaki came to Court? We only know that in a passage of the Diary which apparently refers to the year 1008 she speaks of her novel having been read out loud to the Emperor. His majesty’s comment (‘This is a learned lady; she must have been reading the Chronicle of Japan’) shows that what was read to him must have been the opening chapter of the tale." (Murasaki 7)
Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. Translated by Arthur Waley, Houghton Mifflin, 1925. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66057/66057-h/66057-h.htm.
Topics/Questions to Consider While Reading:
What does it mean that the author is a woman?
Are there themes we consider more "feminine"? Why? Should we?