Gender and National Literature

"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"