Tomiko Yoda is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and the Program in Literature at Duke University.

• Acknowledgments ixNote to the Reader Introduction 11. The Feminization of Heian and Eighteenth-Century Poetics 252. Gender and the Nationalization of Literature 413. Women and the Emergence of Heian Kana Writing 814. Politics and Poetics in The Tale of Genji 1115. Tokieda’s Imperial Subject and the textual Turn in Heian Literary Studies 1466. Gender and Heian Narrative Form 182Epilogue: Heian Texts and Feminist Subjects 214Notes 231Bibliography 261Index 269

“I can think of few other scholarly monographs that have taught us as much about the historical significance of the study of classical ‘literature’ in modernity. The narrative texts of Heian Japan have never received more meticulous and rigorous scrutiny achieved with such sheer intelligence. Tomiko Yoda succeeds in speaking to interdisciplinary and international audiences about why the institution of ‘literature’ had to serve a crucial role in the manufacture of specifically gendered subjects of the nation and how the pronominal categories had to be invented in order to newly designate modern subjects. She has laid a cornerstone in the literary studies of modernity, which the cultural studies of Japan, East Asia, and Europe can no longer ignore. This is a remarkable achievement.”-Naoki Sakai, Cornell University “Keenly, lucidly, thoroughly, Gender and National Literature shows how the modern feminization of Heian literature did not simply parallel the formation of the modern subject in Japan, but proved integral to it. Tomiko Yoda thus issues a profound challenge to the received wisdom about the femininity and the ‘women’ of classical literature. And her response is brilliant: turning to the materiality of the Heian text, Yoda poses new readings that take the question of gender far beyond previous studies of Heian and modern Japanese literature.”-Thomas LaMarre, author of Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription

Tomiko Yoda is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and the Program in Literature at Duke University.

• Acknowledgments ixNote to the Reader Introduction 11. The Feminization of Heian and Eighteenth-Century Poetics 252. Gender and the Nationalization of Literature 413. Women and the Emergence of Heian Kana Writing 814. Politics and Poetics in The Tale of Genji 1115. Tokieda’s Imperial Subject and the textual Turn in Heian Literary Studies 1466. Gender and Heian Narrative Form 182Epilogue: Heian Texts and Feminist Subjects 214Notes 231Bibliography 261Index 269

“I can think of few other scholarly monographs that have taught us as much about the historical significance of the study of classical ‘literature’ in modernity. The narrative texts of Heian Japan have never received more meticulous and rigorous scrutiny achieved with such sheer intelligence. Tomiko Yoda succeeds in speaking to interdisciplinary and international audiences about why the institution of ‘literature’ had to serve a crucial role in the manufacture of specifically gendered subjects of the nation and how the pronominal categories had to be invented in order to newly designate modern subjects. She has laid a cornerstone in the literary studies of modernity, which the cultural studies of Japan, East Asia, and Europe can no longer ignore. This is a remarkable achievement.”-Naoki Sakai, Cornell University “Keenly, lucidly, thoroughly, Gender and National Literature shows how the modern feminization of Heian literature did not simply parallel the formation of the modern subject in Japan, but proved integral to it. Tomiko Yoda thus issues a profound challenge to the received wisdom about the femininity and the ‘women’ of classical literature. And her response is brilliant: turning to the materiality of the Heian text, Yoda poses new readings that take the question of gender far beyond previous studies of Heian and modern Japanese literature.”-Thomas LaMarre, author of Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription

Tomiko Yoda is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and the Program in Literature at Duke University.

• Acknowledgments ixNote to the Reader Introduction 11. The Feminization of Heian and Eighteenth-Century Poetics 252. Gender and the Nationalization of Literature 413. Women and the Emergence of Heian Kana Writing 814. Politics and Poetics in The Tale of Genji 1115. Tokieda’s Imperial Subject and the textual Turn in Heian Literary Studies 1466. Gender and Heian Narrative Form 182Epilogue: Heian Texts and Feminist Subjects 214Notes 231Bibliography 261Index 269

“I can think of few other scholarly monographs that have taught us as much about the historical significance of the study of classical ‘literature’ in modernity. The narrative texts of Heian Japan have never received more meticulous and rigorous scrutiny achieved with such sheer intelligence. Tomiko Yoda succeeds in speaking to interdisciplinary and international audiences about why the institution of ‘literature’ had to serve a crucial role in the manufacture of specifically gendered subjects of the nation and how the pronominal categories had to be invented in order to newly designate modern subjects. She has laid a cornerstone in the literary studies of modernity, which the cultural studies of Japan, East Asia, and Europe can no longer ignore. This is a remarkable achievement.”-Naoki Sakai, Cornell University “Keenly, lucidly, thoroughly, Gender and National Literature shows how the modern feminization of Heian literature did not simply parallel the formation of the modern subject in Japan, but proved integral to it. Tomiko Yoda thus issues a profound challenge to the received wisdom about the femininity and the ‘women’ of classical literature. And her response is brilliant: turning to the materiality of the Heian text, Yoda poses new readings that take the question of gender far beyond previous studies of Heian and modern Japanese literature.”-Thomas LaMarre, author of Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription