A long prose narrative following the romantic and political life of Hikaru Genji, the son of a Japanese emperor demoted to commoner status, and, in its later chapters, the generation that follows him, set against the refined and ritualized world of the Heian imperial court. Its psychological interiority, formal sophistication and sustained length lead many scholars to treat it as an early and fully realized example of the novel as a form, centuries before the eighteenth-century European works older, Eurocentric literary histories once credited with originating it.
Facts
Disputed
Composed, From (Year)Most reference sources place composition in the first decade of the eleventh century, commonly cited as substantially complete by around 1008 based on a contemporary diary reference, but the work's composition across many chapters over an extended period, and uncertainty about its precise chronology, mean no single start year is agreed. Classification
Original Language Connections
Authored By
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
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Original Language
Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannicatier 1
Sources
1. The Tale of Genji (Wikipedia)
LeadQuote, Lead
is a classic work of Japanese literature said to have been written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century.
2. The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica
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