The Prose of Our Land
Today, Ban Kōkei 伴蒿蹊 (1733-1806) is mostly known as the author of a collection of biographies, which became one of the best-selling books of Japan's late eighteenth century. However, he also devoted much of his career to developing the expressive potential of Japanese prose writing. This articl...
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositório: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:304998 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/304998 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1215/15982661-10773048 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Reforma de la llengua Traduccions Japanese language Japonès Language reform Translations Language fascination Kokugaku |
| Resumo: | Today, Ban Kōkei 伴蒿蹊 (1733-1806) is mostly known as the author of a collection of biographies, which became one of the best-selling books of Japan's late eighteenth century. However, he also devoted much of his career to developing the expressive potential of Japanese prose writing. This article locates Kōkei's promotion of language reform within the context of contemporaneous developments in translation from classical into vernacular Japanese and explains the role of translation in Kōkei's attempts to develop Japanese prose writing nearly one hundred years before the better-known national language advocacy of the "Unification of the Spoken and Written Languages" (Genbun itchi 言文一致) movement of the Meiji period (1868-1912). Considered alongside canonical figures like Motoori Norinaga and Ogyū Sorai, Kōkei's lesser-known work is evidence of a nascent "national" language consciousness among Japanese intellectuals prior to the Meiji period. |
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