A Stylistic Typology of Heian–Kamakura Period Literature

Using a Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to establish a stylistic typology of Heian–Kamakura period literature through a cluster analysis of stylistic indicators such as the percentage of nouns in a text, average sentence length, percentage of dialog, lexical stratification rate (percentage of native, Sino-Japanese and hybrid lexicon) and usage ratios of the complementizers to and nado when quoting dialog. Through this analysis, it was revealed that Heian–Kamakura period literature can be divided into the following five stylistic categories: wakankonkōbun (‘Japanese-Chinese hybrid’) style, archetypical wabun (‘native’) style, early wabun style, nikki bungaku (‘diary literature’) style A and nikki bungaku style B. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that such a typology is effective in illustrating the stylistic characteristics of various genres of literature as well as the differences between wabun and kanbun kundoku-bun (vernacular readings of Classical Chinese) style texts.