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Unpublished Paper
Defining the Feminine Impact on the Progression of Japanese Language: An inquiry into the development of Heian period court diaries
(2004)
  • Michele Gibney
Abstract

From the split of the private and public lives of gender divides, men lived on the outside imbibing Chinese language styles, while women on the inside established and preserved a uniquely Japanese form of language. This paper asserts the theory that the Heian period was one of the first times in which the schism was produced through the female’s power to embody a written language which the Japanese could claim as their own independently of the effect from other cultures. In its focus this paper aspires to analyze the public/private, male/female origins by placing them within the Heian period, from which two court diaries and one novel will be examined. Once the theory of dichotomy has been concretely set down, the paper will move onto an analysis of the works of literature from the time period in order to give some sense of what the authors were trying to accomplish in reaction, perhaps, to the gendered society of which they were a part.

Keywords
  • language,
  • writing,
  • feminist studies,
  • diaries,
  • feminist theory,
  • gender divide
Publication Date
December 1, 2004
Citation Information
Michele Gibney. "Defining the Feminine Impact on the Progression of Japanese Language: An inquiry into the development of Heian period court diaries" (2004)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michele_gibney/15/