How Wavering Time Supports Fiction : Focusing on reigns in The Tale of Genji(Symposium Theme Papers: Transcending "History is Story (Monogatari)": Bringing out the potential of monogatari through "Fiction × Reality",<Special Issue>"Fiction × Reality" II)

Abstract

Like history, a narrative has plural axes of time. However, when we read narrative, we seek for one axis of time. We deny incoherence, seek for coherence, and reconstruct a story. But The Tale of Genji, a text connected to history, does not allow the reduction to one axis of time. It reveals that it has plural axes of time, and it causes characters' past and present to waver. This wavering shakes our perception as well as the characters'. I will talk about "Engi," an era name defining time, and explain the intersection of "Fiction × Reality."