| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Shuten D?ji [Drunken Demon], from the genre otogi z?shi or Companion Tales, is one of Japan's most famous and popular medieval oni legends. While on the surface Shuten D?ji provides a potent literary example of good triumphing over evil, internal tensions in the text blur these distinctions. Thus, the representation of the Japanese imperial court and the noble warriors fighting on its behalf as the force of all that is 'good' becomes a troubled one, because the voice of the doomed 'evil'oni resonates throughout the text as the voice of the marginalized other. To explicate this alternate viewing of the demon and to prize out the tensions within the text, this article examines Shuten D?ji through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the Carnival.
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