Performing Lyric, East and West: A Comparative Study of the Ancient Greek and Japanese Traditions

This project proposes the first comparative analysis of ancient Greek and classical Japanese performed lyric poetry (Nō) ever to be undertaken.

It will explicate the fragmentary Greek lyric poetry as textual traces of a now extinct performance tradition against the still living Japanese lyric performance tradition that is Nō, harnessing the insights of cognitive performance studies.

In so doing it will produce a proof of concept for the comparison between Greek lyric and Nō, a demonstration of the application of novel approaches drawn from cognitive performance studies to both the Greek and the Japanese material, a novel set of comparative readings for the benefit of both Classicists and Japanologists, and an impetus for renewed dialogue between scholarship and performance practice.

The successful completion of this project will establish me as a comparatist in addition to a classicist, extending my scholarly reach beyond my native discipline and even beyond the academic world by allowing me scope for engagement with the performing arts and the public at large.

The research will be carried out in universities in Japan and Italy, straddling the respective departments of Classics/Humanities and Japanese and Comparative Literature/Asiatic Studies at the University of Tokyo and Ca’ Foscari University Venice.