THE PERFORMATIVITY OF CLASS AND STATUS: A STUDY OF GENDER IN UGETSU MONOGATARI

Abstract

Previous studies of Ugetsu Monogatari focused mainly on psychoanalyzing the author, Ueda Akinari, and how the tales reflect his kokugaku ideas, with limited scholarship that addressed issues of gender construction. Through close textual analysis, my thesis examines the construction of gender and its implications in Ugetsu Monogatari using Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as a framework. Focusing my analysis on the three main groups of people featured in Ugetsu Monogatari, I argue that gender in Ugetsu Monogatari is a male-centric and complex construction centered on class and status. By extending Butler’s ideas to include class and status in the context of early modern Japan, I explain how gender construction in Ugetsu Monogatari participated in the “naturalization” of the social hierarchy when favoritism of the samurai class and contempt for the merchant class helped the hegemonic institutions of Edo society maintain power.