Interview with Loren Waller (EALL), Summer 2017 CEAS Research Grant Award Winner

Loren Waller (EALL) received a CEAS Summer Travel & Research Grant to help support two months of research in Japan for his project, “Expressions of Antiquity in Classical Japanese Literature.”

To begin, could you please provide a brief summary of your research?

I study early Japanese literature, particularly the Man’yoshu, an eighth century poetic anthology. 

How did you first get interested in your topic of research?

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by antiquity because it requires the use of the imagination to fill in the blanks, and I began studying the Man’yoshu when getting a master’s degree in Kyoto. Scholarship in Japan tends to be very philological, and I learned to look closely at the manuscripts when reading poetry. Since coming to Yale, I have had more opportunities to think theoretically about literary practice and material culture. 

What did you do for your summer project?

I went to Japan over the summer to conduct several projects related to my ongoing research of early Japanese literature. My first trip was to Kochi, where I had been invited to speak about recent research being done at Yale on a 17th century Japanese calligraphy album. While in Kochi, I also visited the Kochi Prefectural Library to begin locate some archival material related to Kamochi Masazumi, an early modern commentator of the eighth century poetry anthology, the Man’yoshu. 

I also participated in a workshop organized by the Association of Narrative Studies focusing on translation theory, where I presented a paper on plant names and their connotations in Chinese and Japanese literature, as well as in English translation. In addition, I made use of materials in the Waseda University library, and visited the Institute of Oriental Classics at Keio University. 

While most of the above projects depended on the use of rare and unique materials, the most valuable part of my trip was being able to interact with and receive feedback from specialists in Japan.

What would you say were the most interesting findings of your summer research?  Were there any surprises?

Beginning around the 17th century in Japan, it became popular to collect fragments that had been cut from manuscripts, either one page or a few lines at a time, and to place them in albums, and a team has been studying one such album held by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. During this trip, I was shown an unusual album that cut a number of valuable manuscripts mid-line, rendering the text unreadable. This is an extreme example, but it completely changed the way I think about the aesthetics of fragmentation.

What was the most challenging part of your summer research?  Were you able to overcome these challenges?

One difficulty in research is finding creative inspiration to look at materials in fresh yet relevant ways. Such ideas often come in unexpected ways, and through putting oneself in new environments. When walking around the famous Mt. Kagu in Nara, I suddenly had an idea about how to interpret an old poem in a new and compelling way.

Now that you are back on campus, what is the next step for your research? 

I gave a presentation on my manuscript fragment research at an interdisciplinary workshop on philology in September, and will present on some other research I conducted at the Archaia Forum in November. I will continue to be involved in the team studying the Beinecke’s calligraphy album, and other aspects of my research will become parts of my dissertation. 

Do you have any words of advice for graduate students who plan to do research abroad next summer?

Make an effort to network with people who can help you learn things and meet your goals.

Photos from Loren’s summer research trip are available here.