Page "Murasaki Shikibu" Paragraph 16

In his The Pleasures of Japanese Literature, Keene claims Murasaki wrote the " supreme work of Japanese fiction " by drawing on traditions of court diaries, and earlier monogatari — written in a mixture of Chinese script and Japanese script — such as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter or The Tales of Ise.

She drew on and blended styles from Chinese histories, narrative poetry and contemporary Japanese prose.

Adolphson writes that the juxtaposition of formal Chinese style with mundane subjects resulted in a sense of parody or satire, giving her a distinctive voice.

Genji follows the traditional format of monogatari — telling a tale — particularly evident in its use of a narrator, but Keene claims Murasaki developed the genre far beyond its bounds, and by doing so created a form that is utterly modern.

The story of the " shining prince " Genji is set in the late 9th to early 10th centuries, and Murasaki eliminated from it the elements of fairy tales and fantasy frequently found in earlier monogatari.