In Heian era Japan, the way people expected young women to look and act differs strongly from today’s standards. Aristocratic women faced the harshest scrutiny, and those who didn’t live up to the cultural values faced judgement from people. Every action, outfit and sentence uttered faced the criticism of maids, parents, and suitors. Many of these were based on the Buddhist religion, while others stemmed from the popular culture. One is able to better understand what these expectations specifically included in the Lady Who Admired Vermin. By observing her appearance and behaviour, the life of a young aristocrat is revealed. The cultural expectations of young, aristocratic women in the Heian era included beauty, the separation of, and the interactions between men and women.
Through cultural studies, one is able to better understand and appreciate literature in different societies. It has broadened what literary theory once looked at in terms of non-western literature. Non-western literature, specifically Japanese literature, has gone from something that needs to be counted to something that needs to be read (Culler, 46). Literary theory, in hand with cultural studies, helps to understand the context of Japanese literature and to read the texts without “common sense.” By knowing the background of a culture, one can read a text as if they are a native of that culture. In the Lady Who Admired Vermin, cultural expectations can be examined with cultural studies in order to reveal how the culture influenced word choice and phrasing. Both literary theory and cultural studies create a dynamic lense for which to analyze how women are treated and their expectations in The Lady Who Admired Vermin.
The Lady Who Admired Vermin tells the st...
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...e Assistant Director, show how men and women interacted with each other. Together all of these give a realistic picture of the cultural expectations of young, aristocratic women living in the Heian era.
Works Cited
Citations
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Making the transition from living a naïve existence under the protection of the father to presiding over the oikos under the supervision of the husband was the essential social norm for youthful citizen Athenian women. It is unsurprising, then, that in a patriarchal society, the young female could only fulfill her societal role as manager of the oikos when her assumed empty vessel was filled by her husband with the proper knowledge.
...The Tale of Genji”, Murasaki Shikibu writes of Genji, the perfect man, and Murasaki, the perfect woman, which in fact to not act to define or identify the ideal man and woman of the Heian Court, but rather to act as a pastiche on the idea of idealness. These two characters in conjunction with the second chapter of the narrative, in which the ideals of women are discussed by men, create the definition of the ideal man and woman in the Heian court and then parody that made definition.
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... aggressive taking of Utsusemi. Thus, the female ideal is one of resignation and feigned timidity. The whole courting process is basically a superficial coating for the male dominated view of women as sexual objects. Therefore, the female ideal during the Heian period is primarily one based upon the male objectification of women during that time.
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Buddhism which just may be the most tolerant religion in the world, constitutes teachings that can coexist with almost any other religions. Buddhism began with Siddhartha Gautama who lived in northern India in the sixth or fifth century B.C.E. The religion has guidelines in two forms in which Buddhist followers must follow. These are the Four Noble Truths and the Eight fold Path. Buddha taught that man is a slave to his ego and that the cause of suffering is desire, essentially the way to end suffering is to overcome desire. Buddhist views toward sex are those constituting that it is a natural part of human life, but also something that is associated with craving. As the Buddhist path involves overcoming these cravings this also means becoming less oriented towards sex. In most Buddhist traditions, devoted practitioners become celibate monks and nuns, and in traditional societies this was the only alternative to a family life. Celibacy traditionally signifies a noble, yet mystifying devotion that is difficult to understand and has become the subject of much critique, especially within the realms of Catholicism. But what are the origins of this tradition? this essay will present various sources of information on the subject from various traditions, with an emphasis on celibacy within buddhism.
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