Strategies of Adaptation: Constructing <i>Gōkan</i> in Late-Edo Japan

Abstract

Towards the end of the Edo period (1603–1868), one of the driving forces behind the construction—and reconstruction—of stories in commercial publishing was adaptation. This dissertation investigates the late-Edo system of literary production and consumption, and interrogates the mentalities behind it, by looking through the prism of the gōkan: a type of illustrated, woodblock-printed book that epitomises the adaptive spirit of early-modern Japan through its serialised, eye-catching, and diverse storytelling. By engaging with early-modern discourse and contemporary theory alike, this dissertation makes three contributions. The first is towards our knowledge of the gōkan itself, the subject of a significant body of Japanese-language scholarship, but which has received markedly less attention in English. Through three detailed case studies given a chapter each—Kabuki no hana botan-dōrō (1810), Kantan shokoku monogatari (1834–56), and Irohagura Suikoden (1849–50)—I explore the varied possibilities of textual construction and add further nuance to our understanding of late-Edo rhetoric and technique. The second area of contribution is to our understanding of adaptation itself. Nothing is as clear-cut as previous studies are liable to suggest, and my approach foregrounds the need for acknowledging such complexities. Not only do I make sure to recalibrate existing adaptation theory to suit the situation in early-modern Japan, but I also use my gōkan case studies to highlight phenomena and characteristics that have not yet been fully accounted for in present-day treatments of adaptation, including multiplicity, equilibrium, and the editorial dimension of digestion. In other words, instead of imposing a one-way conversation onto late-Edo materials, this dissertation seeks to facilitate an ongoing and critical dialogue between early-modern and present-day conceptualisations of textual change. The third and final contribution aims to refresh our conception of early modern Japanese literature at large. In the coda that constitutes the final chapter of this dissertation, I present a new working model—the “architectonics” of adaptation—that connects together the rhetoric and techniques of constructing gōkan with the wider socio-cultural conditions that allowed these strategies to flourish in the first place. In order to concretise my investigation, I foreground the notion of the commons: a widespread cultural domain that was facilitated by the spread of woodblock prints, but which was unfettered by the restrictions of intellectual property. Ultimately, this dissertation aims to open up new ways of interpreting and accounting for the strategies of writers and illustrators, as well as their interaction with readers, as they navigated the open waters of popular culture together in the age before the advent of modern copyright.