EASTD 220R: Medieval Japanese Picture Scrolls
In this advanced seminar, primarily for graduate students with the ability to read classical and modern Japanese, we'll examine a small selection of narrative picture scrolls (emaki) dating between the 12th to the 16th centuries. As a type of illustrated book, emaki open onto issues of reader response, cognitive literary theory, naratology, and text-image relationships in the premodern period. Emaki also contain some of the most compelling and sophisticated forms of visual storytelling produced anywhere in the world, employing techniques that prefigure cinematic approaches by several centuries. We will examine emaki from a variety of theoretical approaches, while being attuned to the unique properties of the horizontal scroll format and the reader's relation to the object and the storyworld. Each medieval scroll is the result of a unique production context, shaped by the input of patrons, scholars, editors, as well as artists and calligraphers. Students will be introduced to crucial premodern sources in order to analyze the content of emaki in a way that is historically grounded.