The Unending Dream: The Tale of Genji in the World

FAIN: GN-50682-05

Catticus Corporation (Berkeley, CA 94710-2597)
Elliot Arthur Berlin (Project Director: March 2005 to September 2007)

Consultation on a one-hour television documentary about the 1,000-year-old Japanese novel, "The Tale of Genji," and artists who use the novel as a source for current work.

We propose a TV documentary introducing the 1000-year-old Japanese novel, The Tale of Genji, and its long history of inspiring writers, artists, and performers in Japan and elsewhere. The Genji is the national literary classic of Japan; its influence over Japanese culture has persisted since it appeared. Of late, The Tale of Genji has gone increasingly international, as adaptations and evocations of the story appear in the West. These include a full-length opera, a program-length dance created by a New York Company, and an American novel in the form of an imagined memoir, as if written by the Genji's author, Murasaki Shikubu. It is time to fully introduce this great work to the West to narrow the gap that remains between the West and Asia.