The Gloss as Poetics: Transcending the Didactic

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Bell & Howell Information and Learning; Foreign text omitted. This article examines recent creative uses of the interlinear gloss, or furigana, in Japanese writing. Traditionally used simply to supply pronunciations for Chinese characters, the examples collected and analyzed here make use of several different nonstandard script combinations, and provide poetic tropes or subtle alterations of the glossed text. The unique simultaneity of the relationship between gloss and glossed word, the manipulation of symbolic associations of the various notational systems employed in Japanese and creation of distinctive patterns lend support to arguments for the autonomy of the written word. Introduction The Japanese script reform of half a century ago aimed to encourage a more rational and efficient use of traditional notational systems, one that would dispense with both the need for and consequently the use of interlinear pronunciation glosses (furigana) for unusual characters or difficult combinations. However, the last twenty years has seen a resurgence in the use of such glosses (broadly defined), not so much for didactic purposes as for their poetic potential. The unique, interlinear position of furigana and other glosses creates many possibilities for artistic graphic patterning, a kind of visual poetry,which manipulates Japan's rich notational resources, as well as the stylistic and symbolic dimensions of the various systems. These new figurations are dependent on traditional scanning and processing procedures, yet make use of them in innovative ways, playing with the authoritative dimension of the word-- glossrelationship.This paper examines the historical ground against which these practices figure, the linguistic devices they employ and attitudes toward language and script resources which they evidence. The mere persistence of three distinct but (essentially) phonetically equivalent notational systems in Japan should give pause to those inclined to hold that writing does not operate independently of speech; the creative exploitation of the current and historical linguistic and social functions unevenly divided among Japan's various notational systems should be convincing evidence of the autonomy of the written word2 At the very least this paper proposes a preliminary classification for a collection of creative interlinear glosses. A Brief History of Interlinear Glosses in Japan The history of interlinear glosses is interwoven with the development of the Japanese writing system,and with historical changes in writing style. Following the introduction of books from China (between the late third century and early fifth century A.D., according to eighth-century Japanese records), Japanese writing began to develop along several complimentary paths. Several Japanese studied Chinese, and learned to read and write in the Chinese style. A relatively pure style of Chinese was the language of official documents throughout the Nara (710-794) and Heian (794-1185) periods. But those with the resources, freedom and inclination to learn Chinese were relatively few, and even in this period less formal documents were often written in a modified form of Chinese. In adapting Chinese writing to native uses, the Japanese were faced with two problems: the task of making sense of Chinese texts and that of recording Japanese elements in the Chinese script. Let us deal first with the latter task. In Japan Chinese characters, referred to as kanji, came to be read using two types of pronunciation, one borrowed from the Chinese pronunciation (the on, or sound', the other a Japanese word of equivalent meaning (the kun, or explication).3 Thus Japanese words could be written with Chinese characters of corresponding meaning, or transcribed phonetically, using either the kun or on reading with little or no regard for the meaning; characters used in this way are referred to as kana. Some texts, like the Nihon shoki of 720, imitated the syntax and conventions of wri

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