Poetic Allusion : Some Aspects of the Role Played by Kokin Wakashuu as a Source of Poetic Allusion in Genji Monogatari

Sammanfattning: This study concerns the role of Kokin Wakashuu poetry as a source of allusion (as HIKIUTA, "a poem alluded to") in the narrative, dialogue and letters of Genji Monogatari.The material has been divided into 188 contexts, with one poem alluded to in each context. There are 128 Kokin Wakashuu poems alluded to, some of them more than once. According to the effect that HIKIUTA has in each context, a fourtype classification has been contructed:1) HIKIUTA as an aesthetic mode of expression.HIKIUTA is used mainly for an aesthetic purpose, to create refined language. By allusion to poetry, things are implicitly told and the language suggests further nuances.2) HIKIUTA as an implicit mode of expression.By making allusion to poems, refined language not only invokes the connotations of the poem alluded to, but also produces a shift in focus from what is explicitly stated to what is implicitly told.3) HIKIUTA as an expanding mode of expression.The poem alluded to widens the scope of the expression of the Genji Monogatari context. The effect of this varies according to context. A situation or state of feelings is often summed up and clarified. Often parallels between the events of Genji Monogatari and its literary background are drawn by HIKIUTA.4) HIKIUTA as a means of recognition.Here the poem alluded to constitutes, as it were, the firsthand source of knowledge about reality; reality is perceived in terms of the poem alluded to, the latter guides the interpretation of reality and constitutes an incentive for action in the world of Genji Monogatari.