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Discussion Questions for Masks (1958) by Enchi Fumiko

Literary criticism read for this discussion, "Bound by Blood: Female Pollution, Divinity, and Community in Enchi Fumiko's Masks" by Nina Cornyetz.  US-Japan Women's Journal no. 9 (1995): 29-58.


1.  Cornyetz describes many ideas associated with blood.  Which of her ideas could you use to read the last scenes of the film Carrie?  (We saw last week to expand our discussion of female power in Noh plays.
 

2. Give the three or four key points Cornyetz makes in her article that most help you in  reading Masks.  (Highlight those passages in your copy of the essay, and bring the essay to class for discussion.  We will read passages aloud in considering the points you select).
 

3.  A defrauding of the patrilineal line occurs in Tale of Genji and Masks. Compare how this fraud is drawn in both novels; what attitude toward the fraud do the novels encourage in the reader?
 

4.  How does Mieko's essay on "The Shrine in the Fields" become a re-reading of the Noh play  and Tale of Genji?
 

5.  How would you describe the relationship between Mieko, Yasuko and Harume?  Where do all the male characters fit in relation to the women's bond?
 

6.  How do the Noh masks function in this novel?  Is this similar to their function in Noh plays?
 
 

7. Remember the 1955 Housewife Debate with which we started the class?  Can you draw parallels between the issues raised in Masks and the culture of 1950s Japan?