Monogatari  

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Monogatari is a literary form in traditional Japanese literature, an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic. Monogatari is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates a fictional or fictionalized story, even when retelling a historical event. Many of the great works of Japanese fiction, such as the Genji monogatari and the Heike monogatari are in this monogatari form.

The form was prominent around the 9th to 15th centuries, reaching a peak between the 10th and 11th centuries. According to the Fūyō Wakashū (1271), at least 198 monogatari existed by the 13th century. Of these, around forty still exist.

When European and other foreign literature later became known to Japan, the word "monogatari" began to be used in Japanese titles of foreign works of a similar nature. For example, A Tale of Two Cities is known as Nito Monogatari, One Thousand and One Nights as Sen'ichiya Monogatari and more recently The Lord of the Rings as Yubiwa Monogatari .

Contents

Genres

The genre is sub-divided into multiple categories depending on their contents:

Denki-monogatari

Stories dealing with fantastical events.

Uta-monogatari

Stories drawn from poetry.

Tsukuri-monogatari

Aristocratic count romances.

Rekishi-monogatari

Historical tales.

Gunki-monogatari

War tales.

Setsuwa-monogatari

Anecdotal tales.

Giko-monogatari

Pseudo-classical imitations of earlier tales.

See also

  • Mumyōzōshi, a 13th century literary critique on monogatari, many of which are no longer extant
  • Fūyō Wakashū, a 13th century collection of poetry from various monogatari sources, many of which are no longer extant

Fiction series

Anime, light novels and manga also have this in their title:






Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Monogatari" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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