Travel and Encounter in Early Modern Japan Main Menu Course Description Edo Period Ihara Saikaku Matsuo Bashō

Unit 3 Questions

14943
Questions to Consider for “Narrow Road to the Deep North”
 
  1. As with the short fiction of Saikaku, consider the question of genre in the context of Bashō’s work. How would you describe this text in terms of genre? What role do the poetry and prose play in the account? Do you think Bashō intended his work to be read as a diary or accurate account of his time in the north? Why or why not?
  2. What is Bashō’s attitude toward the act of travel itself? What is his motivation in undertaking this expedition? What are some of the things he expects to see during his time in the north, and what is the significance of these objects?
  3. How do you read Bashō’s advice to would-be poets: “Don’t seek the traces of the ancients; seek that which the ancients sought.”  Where do we see examples of this in “Narrow Road to the Deep North”?


Author biography

William Hedberg's primary research focus is the literature and culture of early modern Japan, and his current project centers on the reception of late imperial Chinese fiction during the Edo and Meiji periods (17th-20th c.). This project brings together long-standing interests in Sino-Japanese literary contact, the history of translation in East Asia, and travel literature. Hedberg's first book, The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction: The Water Margin and the Making of a National Canon (forthcoming, Columbia University Press), examines the Japanese reception of the influential Chinese vernacular novel, "The Water Margin" (Ch. Shuihu zhuan, Jp. Suikoden) as a lens for discussing Japanese theories of translation, early modern interest in Chinese language and material culture, and literary aesthetics. Hedberg's research has been published in the Journal of Japanese Studies, Japan Forum, The International Journal of Asian Studies, and Sino-Japanese Studies.