Literature, Truth and History in Genji Monogatari by Murasaki Shikibu

In the present study, I will analyse the understanding of the relation between literature/fiction and history in the novel Genji monogatari 源氏物語by Murasaki Shikibu. The research conducted on the three types of discourse – literary, historical and religious –, intriguingly conveyed by the author of the novel Genji monogatari, offers the text, besideS its aesthetic, literary value, a poetic valence. Avoiding theorisation, Murasaki Shikibu manages to express the specificity of each type of discourse by INDICATING the key in which each must be understood. Beginning with a focus on the specificity of these discourses, from the viewpoint of discourse poetics, I analysed Murasaki Shikibu’s means of defining fiction, as well as her contribution to the invention of the novel as monogatari, namely a new, imaginary story, in contrast with the older, mukashi monogatari type stories, in which temporality is suspended.

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