“Waka As Premodern Japanese Rhetoric”, Estée Crenshaw2023-08 (Japanese poetry)⁠:

This project outlines some of the main characteristics of waka that warrant its consideration as a premodern Japanese rhetoric. Taking a pan-historiographic approach to waka theory and practice during the years leading up to and during the Heian period (794–1185), I use culture-centered rhetorical criticism guided by the comparative theory the art of recontextualization to examine the waka tradition for its rhetorical importance.

By approaching waka as a rhetoric, this project adds to scholarship on non-Western rhetorical traditions and renews conversations regarding the relationship between rhetoric and poetics. The findings of this study suggest that the waka tradition may be perceived as a rhetoric due to the separation between content and form in waka theory and the attention to discourse contingencies in waka practice.

These findings are important because little has been done to conceptualize premodern Japanese rhetoric or to provide primary texts and terminologies for which to understand it. As such, this project provides important groundwork for understanding premodern Japanese rhetorical traditions and offers numerous avenues for further study.