Images of Women: Changes Reflected in Japanese Literature and Film

Japanese literature once enjoyed flourishing works by women writers at Heian court. (794-1185) These court ladies demonstrated rich variety of talents and personalities in their diaries, essays, and novels. In spite of this illustrious beginning, not many literary works bear female names in the following years until westernization in late 19th century. It is only the last century that women started expressing their voices. This program will examine the changes of images of women portrayed in literary works and film, from their awakening to their search for new self-identity, by both male and female writers and directors during the last century. The focus will be on contemporary women writers who are making unprecedented changes in the literary world of Japan today-the themes, which preoccupy them, the conflicts, which they face between the old and the new, and the ways in which they carry on the Japanese literary and aesthetic tradition through their works. We will explore their fights to break out of men's paradigm in order to search for new sexual identity and relationship with family and children.