NATURE IN CLASSICAL JAPANESE LITERATURE - AN ECOCRITICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE PLANTS IN THE DIARY OF LADY MURASAKI

Abstract

This study has endeavored to answer how nature is represented in a classical Japanese text, the diary of Lady Murasaki, with an ecocritical perspective with respect to plants focusing on the subject with a secondary nature phoneme. To answer this question in the first section I set forth a complete list of the plants in the diary, which is first in the field. While doing this I have focused on the perception of Lady Murasaki on plants and I have suggested a taxonomy for the plants appearing in the diary by utilizing the words used by Murasaki herself in the text which enables me to include the entries not associated with seasons. As a result of the findings in this first part of the article, it was identified that the plants in the text represent the secondary nature. In the second part of the article, I have analyzed the text for the forms the secondary nature took in the diary. In the analysis it is also reached results showing associations of plant references with particular locations and with seasons. This study is the first on this subject to discuss the nature in The Diary of the Lady Murasaki with respect to plants, with an ecocritical approach in Japan, in Turkey and in the world.