CJS Noon Lecture Series | Distant Listening: Conceptions of Sound and Language in Japanese Sinitic Poetry

Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 1010, Weiser Hall, and virtually on Zoom. The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/xwAZ5

Sound is fundamental to most definitions of poetry, a mode of expression often distinguished by the combined emphasis it places upon both sound and sense. But what about poetry written in a language by those who do not speak it? Like their counterparts elsewhere in the Sinographosphere, composers of Sinitic poetry in early modern Japan were keenly attentive to prosodic rules, tonality, rhyme, and other features conventionally associated with aurality. Yet such aspects of a poem were usually inaudible in the dominant form of oral performance practiced in Japan at the time: interpretive recitation aloud by kundoku. This talk examines the diverse ways in which early modern Japanese theorists and practitioners of Sinitic poetry grappled with this central issue.

Matthew Fraleigh is an associate professor of East Asian literature and culture at Brandeis University. He is also currently the Center for Japanese Studies Toyota Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan. Professor Fraleigh is broadly interested in Sino-Japanese cultural exchange from antiquity through the modern period and is now completing a book that examines how Japanese poets from the 17th through the 19th centuries conceptualized classical Chinese poetry.

Accommodation: If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at cjsevents@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.