BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews

EDITH SARRA. Fictions offemininity: Literaiy Inventions of Gender inJapanese Court Women r Memoirs.California, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.

This book explores the literature of thewomen of Heian Japan, from the tenthto the twelfth centuries. During thisearly period of Japanese history, the eliteclasses placed a high emphasis on literacy, with aristocratic men being ableto read and write Chinese and womenusing the purely Japanese kana. It primarily looks at memoirs, written bywomen for a female audience. In looking at this subject, Sarra wants to observe how female writers constructedtheir own feminine identity, and to explore the differences between the accounts of women’s lives in fiction andin their autobiographical writings.The author’s thesis is that women of

this period sought to create their ownsense ofwhat was feminine through literature. Her idea is that through literature what was supposed to be factual,rather than fictional, and in a genremeant for a limited audience ofwomen,women writers could express their ownideas about empowerment and oppression, expressions of desire and theknowledge of self and other, using bothdisclosure and concealment in their writing. In this, Sarra is following the dominant trends in women’s history, lookingto find the voices of the subaltern, andexploring women’s resistance and empowerment in the past.The book follows a quasi-chrono

logical format, with the exception of thelast chapter. The format is chronological because Sarra traces the development of feminine themes in a particulargenre of feminine writing. This genrestarts with the Tosa nikki, and so doesChapter One. The Tosa nikki, eventhough written by a man, is written fromthe woman’s point of view, and in Japanese kana, rather than Chinese charac

ters. This places the memoir (nikki)within the feminine sphere of writingswhich had previously only included fictional novels (monogatari) and poetry(waka). However, the Tosa nikki alsoconfirmed and limited the range ofwhatwas considered “womanly writing”;thus, the subsequent memoirs could notbe as free and liberating for the womenwriters as it was for the men. Instead,they were concerned with following theprescribed style, revealing theirthoughts, but not all of their thoughts,and expressing their feelings, but onlythe appropriate ones. Sarra also uses thefirst chapter to introduce the concept ofan active male audience looking at apassive female writer/subject, and toassert that this concept is false. Chapter two explores the next significantmemoir, the Kagero nikki. Here, theauthor looks at the conflict between thedesire of women to achieve happiness,and the societal conventions that awoman had to be passive. In particular,this memoir reveals that a woman couldnot actively pursue her own goals or tryto escape her situation without facingsocial ridicule and ostracism for her actions. Chapters three and four also lookat a woman’s struggle between activedesire and passive waiting, but in thiscase it is through fictional literature thatthe woman expresses her desires. TheSarashina nikki is primarily concernedwith a gradual movement towards truth,and explores the conflicts between Buddhist truths and a woman’s desires.Sarra takes this to represent the greatersocietal concerns with the discrepancybetween reading fiction and primarilyBuddhist religious doctrines of salvation. The author also explores how otherfeminine characters and stories are usedin the memoir including a retelling ofaromantic affair between a princess anda guard, with the princess being the person in charge. The memoir also contrasts characters from fiction and theirsituations with the situations of the

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writer of the memoir. Chapter five looksat the latest of the memoirs, which wasthe story of an imperial handmaid, theSanuki no suke nikki. Here Sarra looksat the motivation and state of mind ofthe writer herself. She argues that thewriter deliberately speaks in a disjointedand obtuse way in order to give credenceto her claim of being possessed by thespirit of a dead emperor. This possession, according to Sarra, allows thewriter of the memoir to speak for herown inlerests through the voice of another person. The final chapter breaksthe chronological sequence, but the author does this because The Pillow Bookof Sei Shounagon is the fullest expression of a woman writer constructing herown identity. Although The PillowBook is not classified under the memoir genre, Sarra uses it to explore howvoyeurism could be used to objectimen, and how Shounagon rejects theemplotment of the fictional novels infavor of a new, non-narrative style ofwriting recollections.The author is heavily influenced by

a number of recent feminist and historical methodologies. She uses literaryanalysis and is concerned with narrativestructures, employment and distinguishing between the voice of the author andthe voice of the work. And, of course,the construction of gender as somethingdistinct from sexuality is a prominentconcept for her. Another concept thatcomes up is the subject of voyeurismand the extent to which a subject is objectified. Power relations between thewatcher and the watched are also important.The sources that Sarra draws upon

are the above-mentioned writings, aswell as Lady Murasaki’s The Tale ofGenji. These works are the most famouswritings by women during the Heian era.Sarra uses them because, concerned asshe is with constructions of gender, awell-known work may be more influential in and representative of a society

than a very obscure one. These worksand their writers often influenced eachother, as characters from The Tale ofGenji appear in the Sarashina nikki, andLady Murasaki and Sei Shounagon werecontemporaries.This book explores the Heian writ

ings very thoroughly, and goes over interpretations in great detail. The pointthat women writers explored their owndefinitions of femininity through theirwritings is well demonstrated. However, this strength is also the book’sweakness. The analysis of the texts,while interesting, becomes a little longafter the author’s points have alreadybeen successfully demonstrated. Muchof the book summarizes the works, withthe author’s own analysis hidden between synopses. Also, although TheTale of Genji is not one of the analyzedtexts, it is extensively used as a reference. If it is important enough to be asource in almost every chapter, it mayalso merit its own chapter. The mainpoint of Chapter five is that the authorof the Sanuki no suke nikki deliberatelywrote her memoir to buttress her claimofpossession in order to escape the factional politics at court, while very plausible, is ultimately speculation. Similarly, the prominence of SeiShounagon’s work to later literature isalluded to, but not outlined, which weakens her overall argument. IfThe PillowBook influenced other writers, then it isindeed a good example of women constructing their own identities of the feminine. However, ifher work was praisedbut not copied, she remains an interesting anomaly, but correspondingly lesssignificant to Japanese society and culture.This work explores an interesting

period of Japanese history, and definitely adds to the reader’s knowledgeabout women’s literature in Heian Japan. It also reinforces studies broughtup that look at the interactions betweenmen and women in the highly structured

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society ofJapan. The book also exploresa lot of current issues in gender studiesin history—empowerment, gender construction, oppression, and narratology,to name a few.Reviews of the book have been very

complimentary. In the Journal ofAsianStudies (May 2000, Vol. 59, No. 2),Edward Kamens sees the work as “another remarkable movement in thematuration of a field as a whole,” thefield being that of literary criticism andanalysis ofpre-modern Japanese literature. He also writes that Sarra’s “language, method, themes and perspectivesare full of resonance for our reading ofother works in nikki and related genres.”Sonja Arntzen, in the Harvard JournalofAsiatic Studies (Dec. 2000, Vol. 60,Issue 2), describes the work as “a finebook that will help readers situate thesefour Heian memoirs in a complexintertextual framework.” She also notesthat Sarra “uses many theoretical approaches to elucidate text rather thanusing text to support theory.” And, inthe Journal ofAsian History (2001, Vol.35, Issue 2), Thomas Lamane writes thatSarra “attends to rhetorical complexitiesin women’s memoirs, which provideevidence of female agency, of intelligentstrategies of narrative self-invention.”

ROBERT BARTLETT. The Making ofModern Europe: Conquest, Colonization, and Cultural Change, 950-1350.Princeton: Princeton University Press.1993.

In this book, Bartlett writes to explainhow the cultural norms of CarolingianEurope became the standards for all ofEurope. In doing so, he draws a connection between the expansion of Europe during the Middle Ages and the imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, he asserts thatthe formation of colonial methods andideologies started when the Iberian peninsula, the Celtic-speaking world, andthe areas around the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas became integrated intothe idea of a single “Europe.”Bartlett’s thesis is that the expansion

of Europe into the areas northwest,northeast, east, southwest and south!southeast stemmed from the circumstances and cultural patterns foundwithin the lands of the old CarolingianEmpire. The exportation of those patterns to the aforementioned areas bothcemented ideas about what was “European” and laid the foundation for a morehomogenous society. Bartlett concentrates on the frontiers because the conditions there focus attention on thosepatterns that aided expansion. This approach to medieval history follows the“European colonization” theory, inwhich the Crusades, the Reconquista,the English in Celtic-speaking areas andthe “Great March East” of the Germansare seen as modes of colonization.The book is organized according to

what factors helped the expansion ofWestern Europe’s cultural ideals. Thus,the first chapter examines the establishment of Roman Rite bishoprics, sincethose areas which are converted to thatsect of Christianity were definitely influenced by factors to do so, and thoseareas that already followed Rome thushad a connection to all the other areas

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that did too. From there, the book explores first the movement ofnobles, andthen the military technology that allowed the newcomers to establish political power. After that, the self-imageof the conquerors is explored, with theauthor examining how a positive ideology of conquest is created and maintained. Since there would be no lastingexpansion without a supportive population, the mechanics of the free villageand how that attracted burghers andpeasants to the frontier forms the nextchapter. In the next two chapters, thegeography, demographics and economyof these villages and towns is explored.The complex interactions between immigrants and locals forms the basis ofthe next two chapters, followed by a return to the Church, and how it enforcedunity through obedience, ideology, monasticism and holy wars. The theme ofunity absorbs the last two chapters ofthe book, in which the author looks athow the diverse elements of society become a more homogenous unit that isthen prepared to apply the lessonslearned to the wider world one hundredand fifty years later. This approach, asopposed to a chronological one, allowsthe author to highlight the importantaspects and events, without gettingbogged down in the details of the complex histories of the various places.Bartlett accepts and champions the

colonial view of European growth. Themovement of people from Western Europe to northeastern Europe andScandinavia, Eastern Europe, Sicily andthe Holy Land, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and down the lberian peninsula areall described as forms of colonization.Another key idea is that the colonization was a movement spearheaded andmaintained by the elite. Peasants wouldnot move to an area unless they wereguaranteed rights and protection by already established lords. Unity also happens through the elite; it is the movement of bishops and monks, as well as

the laws and enforcement, that create theidea of one Europe.

A diverse array of sources are mari shaled to support this book. Statisticsgleaned from censuses and tax records,chronicles and personal accounts, laws,decrees and charters, archeology andliterary works are all used to explainwhat was happening and how people understood it. These sources illustratewhat a village would have looked like,how it was arranged, why peasantswould move there, what a lord woulddo to get peasants there, and why a lordwould want to move there and try to getpeasants to move there, as well as whatthe locals felt about the newcomers. Thesources, though many, have to be considered from different viewpoints, because what Bartlett is interested in—theimportation of Western European institutions, ideals and technology—are notalways of interest to the chroniclers ofthat time. Also, things that they felt werenot worth explaining, since they wereso common, become tantalizing bits ofinformation, such as what the real difference was between a “German plow”and a “Slavic plow”.Bartlett argues very well, and pre

sents a comprehensive illustration ofhisideas. In looking at the various areas,he draws out common experiences andputs those experiences together to formapaftem ofevents. He looks at the “center” of Western Europe—modernFrance, Germany and England—justenough to explain what happened on thefrontiers, without complicating the storyand obscuring his point. However, hegives only cursory mention to those aspects of the society that could reflect onhis argument, but would only serve tocomplicate it. for example, Jews showup only as examples of a legal exception—where ethnicity and religion created a separate system of rules—and asan amplification to the case of the Spanish Muslims, who were increasinglypressured to conform, although, even

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with conversion, an impurity of bloodcontinued to mark them as distinct fromother Spanish Christians. But the status and situation of Jews in Europe as awhole, since they were an “other” andwere not incorporated into the homogenous Europe, could have been betteraddressed and related to the thesis. Also,the argument concentrates on the areasthat best prove his thesis: Ireland andEastern Europe. Spain, although another case of successful colonization, isgiven some analysis, but the areas of thecentral and eastern Mediterranean getonly cursory mention and analysis. Thisweakens the overall effectiveness of themain theory of the book; as the authorhas included Southern Europe in his argument, he ought to actually use its history to bolster his argument. As theCrusader states of Eastern Europe ultimately failed, its omission is understandable, but Sicily became as much apart of the Latin Christian world as Poland, if not more so. It was the focalpoint for a number ofpolitical struggleswithin this period, which would add tothe theory of successful incorporationinto a homogenous Europe. Failureproves as much as success, though, andthe book would only have been enhanced by a more thorough contrast between the expansions that succeeded andthe ones that failed.Concerning the Crusades, the book

refers to them only obliquely. The various Crusader states, from the Kingdomof Jerusalem to the Latin Empire ofConstantinople, get mentioned, and theauthor cites the Crusades as an expression of European expansion. Bartlettalso credits the Crusades with providing a basis of unity for Europe, with aparticular emphasis on the CrusadingOrders, such as the Templars,Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights.However, he clearly falls into the “colonization-theory” camp, and defends andexplains his position quite clearly.Reviews of this book have been very

complimentary. In the American Historical Review (Feb 1995), WilliamPhillips calls it an important book and amajor work of synthesis, which shows“the medieval roots of many aspects ofthe post-1492 European expansion overseas.” Jean Sedlar, in the Journal of Interdisciplinary History (Spring 1995),called it an “ambitious treatment ofmedieval society in a broad fashion.”Another review, by Howard Kaminskyin Speculum (Apr. 1996), also praisesthe argumentation, but criticizes thebook on three different points. First,Kaminsky wonders how well this theoryfits into traditional Marxist historiography, but this is not a very serious objection. The second criticism is that Bartlettmakes no mention or use of previousworks on this topic, such as R.W.Southern’s Making of the Middle Ages.Kaminsky also criticizes some of thetranslations used by Bartlett, and theconclusions he draws from them. Thesetranslations, while adding to the arguments made, are not central to Bartlett’sargument. However, after Kaminskycompared the original sources withBartlett’s translation, the uses of thesources found in the book do notcorrespond with the sources’ original meaning.

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HOLSTI, ICLEVI J. Peace and War.”Armed Conjlicts and International Order 1 648-1 989. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1991.

With Peace and War Kalevi Hoisti setsfor himself an immense, and seeminglyimpossible, task—a description of thewars of the European system and theresultant major peace conferences of thelast four centuries. Within this exceedingly broad topic, Holsti concerns himself with three specific subjects: first,the “issues that generate internationalconflict,” second, “attitudes toward theuse of force,” and third, “[t]he link between peace settlements and war” (16).It is this third subject which is most central to Holsti’s work. At its core, this isa book intended to explain the factorsnecessary for lasting international peace.When it comes matters ofwar, Holsti

is certainly not a pessimist. He arguesthat war is not inevitable, but the resultsof human decisions, and thus peacesettlements, by taking into account theissues and attitudes related to war, offerpossible solutions not just to specificwars, but to war in general (xv-xvi). Inmaking his argument, Holsti specificallyrejects as too deterministic the analysisofwhat he terms “ecological variables”—territory size, population, types of alliances, etc—common to sociologically-oriented studies ofwar, such as the workof J. David Singer (6-7). for Holsti,discussion of these factors leaves out theelement ofhuman decision making thatis crucial to his understanding why warsactually occur. In his outlook on theinterplay between war and policy hetakes, instead, a “Clausewitzian approach” which rejects the commonTwentieth Century view of war “as aform of deviant behavior” (13). Thus,Holsti does not speak of causes of war,for in his analysis, wars are not causedby outside forces, but rather are specificpolicies chosen by statesmen to promotespecific goals.

The organization of Peace and Waris directly related to Holsti’s tripartiteanalysis of warfare mentioned above—issues, attitudes, and settlements. He isconcerned with five major peace conferences—Westphalia (1648), Utrecht(1713), Vienna(l815), Paris (1919), Sanfrancisco (1945)—and so he divides theten chapters between the single introductory chapter and the two closingchapters evenly among these five conferences. The two chapters for eachconference are then further divided between a chapter on the conference itselfand a chapter on the period followingthe conference. The chapters on theconferences tend to be very historical,and in their concern with the settlementsare directed towards descriptions of theindividual peace plans presented andhow those plans were reconciled into atreaty. By contrast, the chapters on thesucceeding periods are more theoretical,and are divided between an evaluationof the issues that generated conflict anda discussion of changes in attitudes towards war. In discussing the issues,Holsti takes a mathematical approach,tracking individual issues—such as “territory” or “national liberationlstate creation”—as a percentage of total issues,and as a percentage of all wars. Forexample, the period of 1815-1914 fmdsterritory listed as an issue in thirteenwars, representing fourteen percent ofall issues and forty-two percent of allwars (144-145).One of the ideas that guides Holsti’s

study is that the theories and ideas aboutwar and peace that matter most are thoseof the peacemakers, diplomats, andstatesmen themselves, rather than thephilosophers and academics (xiv).Thus, despite Holsti’s Clausewitzianapproach, Clausewitz and his theoriesare rarely mentioned outside of the introduction. The theories of WoodrowWilson and Joseph Stalin, by contrast,are given lengthy consideration. In fact,despite his credentials as a professor of

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political science, Hoisti mostly uses histoncal works to construct his argument.Memoirs of historical figures such asCordell Hull or Mao Tse-tung thus figure prominently in his bibliography.Likewise, biographies of statesmen andprinces are common sources, includingthose on rather minor figures, such asDerek McKay’s Prince Eugene ofSavoy. The third major type of sourceHolsti relies on is secondary works ofhistorical analysis, especially those related specifically to individual treatiesand conferences, such as HaroldTemperley’s A History of the PeaceConference ofParis. This is not to saythat Holsti’s bibliography is devoid oftheoretical works, but rather that theseworks tend to constitute the background,not the heart, of the analysis.Holsti is at his best when he is dis

cussing peace in both descriptive andprescriptive terms. His final chapter,which falls into the latter category, is anexcellent run-down of the prerequisitesnecessary for lasting peace (Holsti identifies eight such factors). While heavilytheoretical, this chapter does not deviate too far from the historical spiritwhich informs the rest of the book. Forinstance, one of the eight prerequisitefactors that Hoisti identifies as necessary for peace is the assimilation of thedefeated power into the new order. Hethus notes that the Paris Peace Conference was the only one of the five conferences here that did not achieve thisprerequisite, leaving Germany a committed enemy of the new order. Despitea theoretical approach, this is consistentwith standard historical interpretation ofthe failures of the Paris Peace Conference. In fact, Hoisti’s eight-point analysis is more generally consistent with thehistorical record, as the two conferencesthat were most successful in maintaining peace (at least among the great powers)—Vienna and San Francisco—are thetwo that score highest on his checklist.One problem with this list, however,

which is somewhat odd for a book soconcerned with change over time, is itsassumption that the same eight factorsare applicable for all time periods.Holsti only partially solves this problemby drawing his categories rather broadly.

A more serious problem with thisbook is Holsti’s inability to provide astandard rubric by which he includeswars in his analysis. To his credit, however, he directly acknowledges the difficulties he faces in selecting marginalcases for analysis, and takes time in eachsection to discuss which conflicts wereincluded and why. A strength in thisselection process is that Holsti applieschanging criteria over time—thus, sincehis analysis is done at the level of states,he limits conflicts to Europe for mostof the period before the Twentieth Century, but includes extra-European conflicts afterward because of their directbearing on the state system. Holsti alsolimits his analysis to the original combatants in any given war, and the issuesat stake for those states. This, however,still leads to decisions which are hardto reconcile, such as his division of theEuropean phase ofWorld War Two intothree separate conflicts—Germany-Poland, Great Britain-Germany, andUSSR-Poland (2 t6). Logically, the firsttwo on this list are the same war, sinceGreat Britain and Poland were allies,and France should probably be includedas well. One could also argue that Germany-USSR should be included, or evenItaly-Greece, because they constituteseparate, if simultaneous, wars.Despite its flaws, this book is over

all quite good, and does much to bridgethe gap between history and politicalscience in the realm of the study ofwar.Historians will likely be somewhat putoff by the theoretical and prescriptivebasis of Holsti’s analysis, but that approach goes to the heart of Holsti’swork, and is thus indispensable. In order to argue convincingly that peace ispossible, it is necessary for Holsti to

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offer a blueprint for successful peaceplans. Likewise, political scientists mayfind his lengthy discussions of historical events tiresome, but again, this is atthe heart of his work. Hoisti’s ideas onpeace owe much to the successful (andunsuccessful) peacemakers of history,for as he notes in the Preface, “[wJarsare learning experiences” (xv). This isas true in the real world as it is inacademia.

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CoNTRIBuTING AuTHoRs

ETHAN SPANIER

Ethan completes his graduate degree in history from San Francisco State Universitythis year and received his bachelor of arts from San Jose State University. Hisinterests are ancient history, primarily agricultural history. He will be attending theUniversity of Washington at Seattle to attain a PhD. This paper was originallywritten for Professor Jarbel Rodriguez’s History 330: Early Medieval Europe, 3001000 AD.

MICHAEL MOlT

Michael is a Senior undergraduate history student at San Francisco State University,earning his second bachelor of arts degree. His first degree in Anthropology is fromthe University of California at Berkeley. His scholarly interests are United Statessocial and cultural history with an emphasis on the intersection of race and sport.This paper was originally written for Professor Christopher Waldrep’s History 300:Seminar in Historical Analysis.

JACOB PEMBERTON

Jacob is history graduate student studying modern Europe, especially Germany. Heearned his bachelor of arts in History with honors at the University of California atSanta Crnz. Jacob originally wrote Amid the Sand and the Fog for Professor JulesTygiel’s History 642: California During the Great Depression, and Counterattackfor Professor Christopher Jackson’s History 740: Total War and Beyond.

JOHN CORRALLY

John is a senior history student at San Francisco State University with scholarlyinterests in imperialism and colonialism. He originally wrote this paper for Professor Kissack’s History 300: Seminar in Historical Analysis.

MICHELLE SQUYER

Michelle is earning her graduate degree in history this year from San Francisco StateUniversity. She is interested in l9 and 20th century cultural history, particularlyinvolving music. She originally wrote this paper for Professor William Issel’s History 790: San Francisco History and Culture.

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ADAM FONG

Adam is earning his graduate degree in history with an emphasis on WorldHistory. His scholarly interests include cross-cultural contacts in world history,Greater East Asia (from Mongolia to Vietnam, Japan to Kashgar, and all points inbetween) and medieval and Renaissance European history. He received hisbachelors of arts from San Francisco State University in history. Adam originallywrote this paper for the Summer Study Program to China of City College of SanFrancisco.

JENNIFER CULLISON

Jennifer is earning her graduate degree in History at San Francisco State University. Her scholarly interests include social, gender, and religious history of theAmericas. Jennifer holds several degrees, including a bachelors and mastersdegree in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Sheoriginally wrote this paper at the Colorado University at Boulder.

JOHN ROSEN

John is graduating this year, earning his masters with an emphasis in Americanhistory. His scholarly interests include 19th and 20th century social and politicalhistory, as well as, urban political and labor history. He is looking forward toearning his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. John originally wrotethis paper for Professor William Issel’s History 790: San Francisco History andCulture.

GEORGE MALACHOWSKI

George is earning his masters in history with an emphasis in American history. Heearned his bachelors of arts degree from Saint Mary’s College ofCalifornia. George’spaper was originally written for Professor Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo’s History ofCalifornia, but underwent significant revision and additions during Professor William Issel’s History 790: San Francisco History and Culture.

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