Pursuit of Forbidden Love
and Control of Passion:
The Case of Chinese Han Goddess
Rhapsodies and Japanese Love Suicides as Melodrama
Kelsey Kornblut
Boston University
XL470 Professor Sarah Frederick
12 December 2014
Abstract
This paper seeks to learn something new
about melodrama as a genre of literature. Providing a case study of Chinese Han
goddess rhapsodies and Japanese love suicide plays, I investigate how the two
genres become melodramatic in similar and different ways. Since the two genres
originate in different countries, different time periods, are formally
different, and are typically read as traditional Chinese poetry and tragedy
respectively, they are an interesting case to study melodrama. Drawing from
three goddess rhapsodies and two love suicides, I illustrate how a “pursuit of
forbidden love” and a “control of passion” dynamic create the excess in emotion
within the two genres. I discuss how these dynamics develop from class
stratification, religious messages, and societal mores. Ultimately, I argue
that these particular dynamics are what allow goddess rhapsodies and love suicides
to be read as melodrama and serve to benefit the genres as literary works.
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| "The Love Suicides at Sonezaki" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon |
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| "The Love Suicides at Amijima" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon |
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| "The Goddess of the Luo" by Cao Pi |
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| "Rhapsody on the Goddess" attributed to Song Yu |
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| "Goddess on the Gaotang Shrine" attributed to Song Yu |
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