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Podcast: New Books in Medieval History
Episode: Erin L. Brightwell, "Reflecting the Past: Place, Language, and Principle in Japan's Medieval Mirror Genre" (Harvard UP, 2020)
Description: Reflecting the Past: Place, Language, and Principle in Japan's Medieval Mirror Genre (Harvard UP, 2020) is the first English-language study to address the role of historiography in medieval Japan, an age at the time widely believed to be one of irreversible decline. Drawing on a decade of research, including work with medieval manuscripts, it analyzes a set of textsâeight Mirrorsâthat recount the past in an effort to order the world around them. They confront rebellions, civil war, âChina,â attempted invasions, and even the fracturing of the court into two lines. To interrogate the significance for medieval writers of narrating...