The Pleasures of Japanese Literature

The Pleasures of Japanese Literature

The book's cover; a work from the "Album of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets" by Sumiyoshi Gukei (1631-1705)
Author	Donald Keene
Cover artist	Sumiyoshi Gukei; design by Jennifer Dossin
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Companions to Asian studies
Subject	Japanese literature (poetry, theater, and fiction)
Genre	Academic
Publisher	Columbia University Press
Publication date	1988

The Pleasures of Japanese Literature is a short nonfiction work by Donald Keene, which deals with Japanese aesthetics and literature; it is intended to be less academic and encyclopedic than his other works dealing with Japanese literature such as Seeds in the Heart, but better as an introduction for students and laymen. This aim is unsurprising, as Keene notes in his introduction that "This book originated as five lectures, three delivered at the New York Public Library in the spring of 1986, the fourth at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1986, and the last at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1987.....The lectures - and this book - were intended for a general audience..." (from the first page of the Preface).

Chapters

Specifically, its five chapters deal with:

1. Japanese Aesthetics - (wabi, mono no aware, etc.)
2. Japanese Poetry - (classical waka, some renga and haiku)
3. The Uses of Japanese Poetry
4. Japanese Fiction - (Tsurezuregusa, Yoshida Kenkō, Biography of Eight Dogs)
5. Japanese Theater - (Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku)

External links

• Review in The New York Times
• Keene, Donald. The Pleasures of Japanese Literatures. ISBN 0-231-06736-4.