Discovering the Educational Power of Literature: Coluccio Salutati and Motoori Norinaga

Abstract

Today, teaching literature has an established place within the school and university curricula in Western and East Asian countries. This seems so natural that we take the educational role of literature for granted. However, history teaches us that elevating literature to an academic subject required a defense of literature against the critical voices raised by philosophy and religion. This criticism was centered on the moral value of literature. This paper explores two prominent defenders of literature in the West and the East: Coluccio Salutati (1332-1406) and Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801). Salutati defended the educational significance of ancient poetry against the criticism from Scholasticism, while Norinaga defended The Tale of Genji against the criticism from Buddhism and Confucianism. The paper consists of two parts. The first part is ded icated to the analysis of the arguments deployed by Salutati and Norinaga in defense of literature. Whereas Salutati insists on the philosophical nature of poetry as allegory, Norinaga sees the educational significance of The Tale of Genji in teaching of mono no aware . The second part digs deeper and reveals the respective horizon of each position as the tradition of philosophy and the tradition of waka poetry.