Disappearing penises, filicidal old women, and monkeys that demand human sacrifice are just a few of the many wild subjects Michelle Li takes up as she considers grotesque phenomena in setsuwa literature. Acknowledging her unwieldy subject matter and slippery theoretical apparatus, she uses whatever interpretative (historical, psychological, symbolic, or feminist) approach seems likely to yield results in any particular case. The interpretation she offers most frequently is that the grotesque is used to “undermine hierarchies and dominant ideologies” (p. 2) but she acknowledges that the grotesque can both “subvert and support” (p. 3) those in power. Li's specific interpretations of individual tales are sometimes obvious, farfetched or inconclusive, but occasionally they are satisfyingly provocative.
Li begins by reviewing scholarship on setsuwa and Western theories of the grotesque. She picks out Mikhail Bakhtin's point that the grotesque often involves a focus on basic bodily functions as the most useful for reading setsuwa. Li sees the tales discussed in chapter 2, “Fantastic Detached Body Parts,” as tending to undermine authority. What matters is not the detached penis or hand in the tales, but whose body part is involved and with whom they are in conflict: A king is killed by the severed head of an insurgent, Minamoto no Takaakira fails to control the disembodied hand of a child, who might symbolize the young crown prince whose appointment as such foils his ambitions, and an aristocrat from the capital fails to learn penis-removing magic from a man in the province of Shinano.
Historical conflict among men is the essential issue in most of the tales Li analyzes in chapter 3, “Curious Sexual Encounters.” Less amenable to analysis is a story of a man who ejaculates into a turnip and the young woman who innocently ate that turnip and then became pregnant. Several years later the parents find each other and marry. Li suggests the story “illustrate[s] the power of both semen and karma” (p. 87) and ponders the possible symbolism of the turnip. Other tales lead Li to reflect on the phallic and vaginal symbolism of snakes.
In chapter 4 Li reviews tales involving flesh-eating demons and concludes that they represent threats to the government, personal threats, the threat of social change, the threat of rival power, etc. She suggests that demons can both “affirm and undermine the positions of men” (p. 153), because even if the demon loses, the demon still represents the “suppressed discontent” and “hopes and desires” (p. 152) of the powerless.
The focus of chapter 5 is demons in female form. Here Li seems eager to find feminist meanings for female demons: She assesses the fearsome power of female demons rather than their maliciousness. Or, in a tale in which an elderly senile mother becomes a demon and attacks her two sons, Li sees an opportunity for readers to safely and vicariously express the anxiety and relieve the stress of having to care for a parent with dementia. Li also focuses on the positive outcome of a story in which a pregnant single woman who intended to abandon her baby is inspired to keep it when she realizes that the old woman who has been harboring her intends to eat the infant.
Chapter 6, “Animal Spirits,” covers tales with foxes, monkeys, birds, snakes, wild boars, raccoon dogs, and tengu (a kite or small hawk). Foxes seem to specialize in deception, sometimes with malicious intent, sometimes forming bonds of affection, and monkeys are seen as having very human feelings, such as gratitude and love for mate or child. Li notices that these tales often seem to indirectly criticize human cruelty or some other foible. In some tales the particular animal spirit seems irrelevant. For example, in one tale a monk is induced to abandon his vows and marry and then is to be sacrificed to local monkey gods. However, the former monk easily subjugates the monkeys, is deified and flourishes. Li comments that this tale condemns local belief but acknowledges that it does not champion Buddhism instead (p. 207).
While readers will not find a unified and coherent interpretation of the role of the grotesque in setsuwa, Li's book is full of interesting moments. The tales themselves are engaging and Li discusses a vast array of historical, cultural, and religious issues as she teases meaning from the tales. Her writing is clear and cogent and her scholarship is meticulous. Li concludes her work on a humble note, but for vastly enriching our appreciation of the role of setsuwa in Japanese literary and cultural history, Ambiguous Bodies is a notable accomplishment.
