The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

There is a section in this passage that is titled"On the the Third Day
of the Third Month." This would be a good impetus to combine a both
an English and Art Lesson. In English students could predict what they
feel might happen, offering the reasons. Joining with the art teacher,
students could drawa diptych, first half of their prediction and the
second half the reality of what actually did happen.This lesson could
also be expanded to the third day of every month.

[Anonymous]

The Pillow Book seems to be one of the most accessible pieces of literature we have read so far. The descriptions are elegantly written, yet have a lightness and universality that our students might find interesting. Lynne Miyake, professor of Japanese Literature at Pomona College. explained that the original was written in poetic prose -- keeping the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern in the prose, something we obviously can't enjoy in the translation.

I can see using a few of these sections in the classroom.
* "In the Spring"...the author described the beautiful dawn. Perhaps students could describe one time of the day using poetic prose. Sei uses personification and visual imagery to paint a picture; students can include those techniques.
* In "Hateful Things," Sei lists some behaviors which she finds distasteful. Students could write a list of social "faux pax" that they find "hateful." Or, they could be asked to write a list of social rules one should be sure to follow. Again, the requirement would be that the descriptions be detailed.
* "Things That Make One's Hart Beat Faster" is a great list beautiful images. This could be a journal assignment or warm-up activity. Then students could compare the two societies.

[Anonymous]

clockwood,

i am equally excited about the ease with which the pillow book could be incorporated into a classroom. i really liked professor miyake's mentioning the liberating qualities of the form. it being broken up into smaller parts often encourages many students who have trouble sustaining focus and enthusiasm for longer texts. the short length of each part also allows for use in isolation based on the topic/theme of the part, and is more or less unlimited as the topics/themes cover a lot of bases. i also like the idea of examining the pillow book alongside other books written in smaller chunks, authors as disparite as Nietzsche and Eduardo Galliano have, as well as other pieces.
i guess the real question is how one chooses to use it-as a warm up? with poetry? with a themed unit? for historical context? psychology? as a single piece? i look forward to figuring out how i'll use it.

[Author]

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