3. Displacements Of Conquest, Or Exile, The Tale Of Genji, And Post-Cold War Learning

Abstract

This chapter discusses the connections between scholarship, gender and the nation-state in particular, as they concern the category of the 'aesthetic', which the Genji tale and the Heian period as a whole to exemplify relationship of that category to the exilic condition. Genji emerges in Morris's portrayal as the handsome, sensitive, loyal and ever-so-solicitous figure who can save women from their loose ways. In Morris' reading, Genji, like America, firmly possesses a 'rule of taste' that allows him to be a 'saviour', an unquestioned civilizing, as well as subjugating, force. Tamakazura's tale is told within the context of Genji's Rokujō Mansion. The mansion is often seen primarily as a locus of aesthetic activities, music, poetry, painting, seasonal motifs. By inextricably associating major characters with exile and transgression, Murasaki Shikibu traces the myriad ramifications of political displacement for the lives of both women and men. Keywords: Genji tale; Genji's Rokujō mansion; Heian period; Murasaki Shikibu; Tamakazura's tale