"Genji Monogatari": The Subject of Woman

Women and relations to women are a central focus of Genji monogatari. Questions regarding women and their relationship to power need to be explored in order to provide understanding to the Genji. While there have been many feminist accounts of the Genji, most assume notions of patriarchy. This thesis will begin to historicize power and how women are inside its formations. Chapter one will discuss marriage politics and the regency system to show how women function in relation to these formations. Chapter two will historicize sexuality in the Genji. Chapter three will discuss perspective in the e-maki of Genji monogatari. Discussion in these three chapters will show that power relations in the Genji are more complex than notions of male domination over female. Resistance in the text is better understood as resistance against the social formations of mid-Heian court society than resistance against men in general.