Japanese Hieroglossia
Inaugural lecture delivered on Thursday 2 February 2012
Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Linguistics
| Author: | Jean-Noël Robert | ISBN: | 9782722602717 |
| Publisher: | Collège de France | Publication: | October 21, 2013 |
| Imprint: | Collège de France | Language: | English |
| Author: | Jean-Noël Robert |
| ISBN: | 9782722602717 |
| Publisher: | Collège de France |
| Publication: | October 21, 2013 |
| Imprint: | Collège de France |
| Language: | English |
At a very early stage, Japanese civilization asserted itself in a relationship of “linguistic competition” with Chinese, in both the religious, the literary, and the intellectual spheres. This cultural symbiosis linked to the shaping of a language, that Jean-Noël Robert has called hieroglossia, was the primary source of the speech that Yasunari Kawabata delivered upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968: By drawing on Japanese Buddhist poetry, he placed himself in the Zen tradition and the mysticism of the language of the Shingon school, according to which there is a direct link between linguistic signs and the substance of things.
At a very early stage, Japanese civilization asserted itself in a relationship of “linguistic competition” with Chinese, in both the religious, the literary, and the intellectual spheres. This cultural symbiosis linked to the shaping of a language, that Jean-Noël Robert has called hieroglossia, was the primary source of the speech that Yasunari Kawabata delivered upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968: By drawing on Japanese Buddhist poetry, he placed himself in the Zen tradition and the mysticism of the language of the Shingon school, according to which there is a direct link between linguistic signs and the substance of things.
