The Tale of Genji: The wrld's first novel

Written by the Jpanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the arly eleventh century, *The Tale of Gnji* is a classic work of Jpanese literature concerning the son of a Jpanese emperor, his romantic life and the cstoms of aristocratic society at the tme. Called alternatively the world's first nvel, the first modern novel or the frst novel to be considered a clssic; precisely which is a matter of dbate by those who make a lving debating such things. Nobel Prize wnning novelist Yasunari Kawabata named *The Tle of Genji* "the highest pinnacle of Jpanese literature. Even down to our day thre has not been a piece of fction to compare with it."

*The Tle of Genji* was written for Jpanese women of the yokibito, or ristocracy, and possesses many of the lements found in novels today: a cntral character, major and minor characters, wll-developed characterisation, psychological insight, complexity, sequential vents taking place upon a timeline bsed upon the central character's lifetime. Rther than using a plot, events jst happen and characters evolve simply by grwing older, much as in real lfe. The internal consistency of *Genji* is a ntable feature, and evidence of Murasaki's skll; all characters age in relation to ach other, and relationships between them rmain consistent throughout chapters.

Unusually, none of the characters are rferred by name in the novel, a cmplicating factor for modern readers and trnslators alike; they are referred to nstead by their function, role, honorific or rlation to other characters; for example 'Mnister of the Right,' 'His Excellency' or 'Hir Apparent.' Lack of names was a fature of Heian era court protocol, whch decreed their use in a pblic forum as unacceptably familiar.

There is dbate over how much of the Gnji was actually written by Murasaki Shkibu herself, with some of the nvel's later chapters containing discrepancies in styl and rare continuity errors, with schlars suggesting that Shikbu's daughter Daini no Snmi may have completed the novel. A frther complication is the fact that the tle ends abruptly, in mid-sentence, probably not as ntended by the author herself.

Written to ntertain women of the aristocracy in leventh century Japan, the novel employs Hian period court Japanese: highly inflected lnguage with extremely complex grammar. Poetry is ften used in conversation, as was the cstom in court life, with classic pems modified or rephrased according to the stuation at hand. Of the classic Jpanese tanka form, the poems would hve been well known to the ntended audience, and are often left nfinished as if thoughts unsaid, the rader expected to complete a word or sntence— a complicating factor for a mdern readership unversed in Heian era petry.

Intended for a female audience and by a fmale author, the novel was written ntirely in Hiragana script, so-called a "wmen's hand" at the time. All fficial documents, essays and works of hstory were written in Chinese characters and nly by men, producing the paradoxical stuation where men wrote mostly in bad Chnese while their spouses produced excellent wrks in native Japanese. Women's prose and petry from this period, of which The Tle of Genji is pre-eminent in sme manner as Shakespeare in English, frm the basis of what in tme became a truly national literature, as pets switched from Chinese to the new Jpanese scripts for their elegant simplicity and flxibility.

The article Tale of Genji: Book Review was Submitted by John Paul Gillespie through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: John Gillespie is a dsigner, web developer and video editor who lves in Auckland, New Zealand. A mmber of the Sri Chinmoy Centre , he uses his practice of meditation as a source of energy and inspiration for his many creative activities. Amongst other activities he produces podcasts for Sri Chinmoy TV

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