This paper explores how stories have been diagrammed, focusing on the Japanese prose-poetry narrative The Tale of Genji (ca 1000). Spanning seventy-five years, four generations, and including some five hundred characters, the complex tale generated myriad supplemental texts to aid readers. One type of diagrammatic paratext, the so-called “Genji genealogy” (Genji keizu), provides brief biographical information about the tale’s fictional characters and charts their interrelationships. In an effort to see beyond the referential nature of these texts, this talk examines how the lineal blueprint of such genealogies can itself generate meaning. The characters listed in the genealogy are linked dramatically by red “bloodlines” and reveal in their order of presentation particular interpretations of the tale. A recently discovered example from 1511 will be the focal point, as its unique patronage history illuminates connections between fictional schemas and historical matrilines in medieval Japan.

Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar "Diagrams Across Disciplines: History, Theory, Practice" co-sponsored by Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.

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