Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Swanstrom, Elizabeth

Abstract

One of the most popular forms of literature in Japan is that of “kaidan.,” literally meaning “strange story,” during the Edo period, but over time “kaidan” has come to specifically mean stories of “yūrei,” or “Japanese ghosts.” Many Western academic studies concerning kaidan thus far are concerned with the genre’s shift from religious didactics to secular entertainment. This is an important evolution to keep in conversation with this project; However, this study will argue that ghosts work as Edo symbols for failing boundaries within an isolationist society. Two of the main texts in this project are translations by Lafcadio Hearn, being “Mimi Nashi Hōichi” and “Jikininki.” The other two main texts used are translations of “Banchō Sarayashiki” by Zack Davisson. In my study, I identify breaches of boundaries within social order in these texts using the aid of Mikhail Bakhtin’s “the grotesque,” Julia Kristeva’s “abject horror,” and Jacques Derrida’s “hauntology.”

Extent

72 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00004590

Format

pdf

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