Team and Socratic Dialog Starting Questions Week of April 15 Tale of The Genji Chapters 25-30

Team and Socratic Dialog Starting Questions Week of April 15  

Tale of The Genji Chapters  25-30

1.     What generates the desire for enchantment?  Why is it valued?  How is it connected to aesthetics?

2.      Discuss the “defense of tales” in Fireflies.

3.      Is Tu no Chujo’s Omi daughter a “foil” device?  Comic relief?  What values does she represent?

4.      Why does Genji mull about “ our world makes it difficult for the stream to run clear again after so unfortunately prolonged a turbid spell”?  (The Imperial Progress) Why does Genji see himself and Tu no Chujo as “sharing a wing”? How was the relationship between Tu No Chujo and Genji mirrored in the next generation?  

5.      How does Genji rationalize keeping Tamakazura?

6.      Trace the course of the philosophy “ a woman should be generally familiar with many things and yet single herself out as expert at none while at the same time remaining neither ignorant or vague”… How does Muraski illustrate this court value while simultaneously presenting its disfunctionality? 

7.     What evidence does Murasaki give on the importance of “excellence” in court culture? Specifically in the Chapter The Pink how should a poem be read? 

8.     How is discretion valued? 

9.     What is the structure and impact of mourning rituals? What is the value of ritual and attention to detail?

1.  What role does “light”, “luminosity” and/or the life lived with awareness of the seasons play so far?  What is involved “seeing”?