Monday, October 14, 2024 | 3:30PM-4:50PM | DMC 207 | COURSE ONLY 

EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Torquil Duthie (UCLA) with Faculty Moderator Dr. Wanmeng Li (EALC 110: East Asian Humanities: The Great Tradition)  
 

Literary writing first appeared in Japan in the late seventh and eighth centuries, in the wake of the sudden and dramatic spread of the use of Sinographic writing among the Japanese court bureaucracy, the resulting adoption of the political ideals and administrative techniques of the Chinese imperial tradition, and the emergence of a literate aristocratic class of government officials. It is at this historical moment, when the Japanese court required a documented history and a written culture worthy of a realm with imperial aspirations, that specific individuals were recognized for their skill in creating beautifully patterned pieces of writing, and their names attached to these works in collections and anthologies that were transmitted to posterity. The Man’yōshū (Collection of a Myriad Ages, c. late eighth century) refers to such individuals as “authors” (sakusha) literally, those (sha) who “make” or “compose” (saku) literary works—meaning poetry and forms of prose that make use of the literary skills epitomized by poetry. As Prof. Duthie will discuss in this lecture, the notion of literary authorship is closely associated with the ideal of the sovereign as maker of the world.

This event is for registered students of EALC 110.