『겐지모노가타리(源氏物語)』의 현대적 수용 과정에 보이는 작가의 문제　- 『내가 겐지모노가타리를 쓴 이유(私が源氏物語を書いたわけ)』 의 문화론 -

Abstract

Murasaki-Shikibu, the author of “the Tale of Genji,” is well-known through the literary work “the Diary of Lady Murasaki.” This work contains the first attested mention of “the Tale of Genji.” Owing to the entry of the diaries “Is there Waka-Murasaki around here?” we call “the Tale of Genji” a 1000- year story, and the origin of her name is also identified. The year 2008 marked the monumental year called “the Tale of Genji, the millennium,” and this was based on Fujiwara-no-Kinto’s remark in “the Diary of Lady Murasaki.” Nevertheless, when we address “the Tale of Genji” together with “the Diary of Lady Murasaki,” we encounter daunting problems. For instance, there is a problem specific to narratives, concerning “katarite” (narrator). Accordingly, there has been a tendency that the issue of author is set aside when “the Tale of Genji” is discussed. Recent years, however, have seen the new form of research that focuses on the author, presumably because of the recent interaction between theories of text and theories of author as well as the expansion of works which process the classical literature with special reference to writers. In this paper, as described above, we confirm the significance of the theory of writer in terms of academic significance and cultural problems detected in “the reason why I wrote the Tale of Genji” a work manifesting such a trend.