Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

People

Love's labours win

Linda Letten, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Asian Studies, has been awarded one of two nationally-contested Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowships to translate and research one of Japan's oldest and most popular love stories, The Tale of Yokobue.

From the middle of this year until January next, she will conduct research at the Graduate School of Letters at Osaka University, working with Professor Hiroshi Araki, a specialist in medieval Japanese literature.

Ms Letten said the story, a tragic romance from late 12th century Japan, is about an imperial maid, Yokobue, and her lover, Takiguchi, a military retainer. It has been re-written many times and in many genres.

Ms Letten is translating what is believed to be the oldest-known transcription, from about 1252, and will compare this with two later versions, one from the mid 1600s and another published in 1703.

'I am exploring the apparently increasing fictionalisation of Yokobue which is paralleled by an increasing idealisation of her feminine characteristics.

'I will investigate the Buddhist influences on the treatment of Yokobue in the later works, which contrasts starkly with the treatment of other women written about in the same genre,' Ms Letten said.

back to top

back contents next