The following is a translation of Rinko
Umeno’s introduction of her own book Médée in Operas: Misogyny in Modern Europe.
I was a student studying vocal music at
Tokyo University of the Arts when the movement of women’s liberation and
student power was extremely active. The university president’s office was
occupied. The movement was lead mainly by students of the faculty of fine arts,
a part of the All-Campus Joint Struggle Committee. Although I was a student of
the faculty of music, I remember that a few other students and I slept in the
corner of the president’s office. Around that time, I also experienced a bitter
relationship with a man and unreasonable discrimination against women in the
movement itself.
After the All-Campus Joint Struggle
Committee was defeated, I met many women who had joined the women’s liberation
movement and shared sadness and pain with each other. It was a valuable
experience. After that, I became a wife and a mother. While I continued to be a musician, I had a
chance to run for an election for the Yokohama City assembly councilor and won
the election in 1995. After I served 2 two terms for eight years, I ran for an election
to Kanagawa Prefectural assembly but I was defeated in the election.
When I was shocked and depressed, my
daughter, who was a student of Yokohama National University, encouraged me to
go and listen to university lectures, saying “university is an interesting
place. Why don’t you audit a lecture?” Since I had had all the time in my hands
all the sudden, I attended “A History of Islamic Civilization,” a course given
by a German professor. It was two years after 9.11 had occurred. I thought I
could not understand the world without knowing Islam. The lecture was so
interesting that I officially entered the university at the post graduate level
next year.
It took 8 years and a half to complete the
courses and to get a doctoral degree in 2012. During this time, I studied in
France for three years in total and went through a lot of adventures. The book,
Médée in Operas: Misogyny in Modern
Europe, is based on my doctoral thesis.
For many years I had thought about poverty,
war, violence, and discrimination against women. I came to think that I could
get a better grip of accumulating issues of present-day society if I became
familiar with the origin of European civilization which formed the base of the
present day. Opera was an emerging art form that was born in the beginning of the
modern times, and thus it has the strong characteristic of the modern times. In
operas, we often see longing for a woman and violence which includes murder,
suicide, and rape. These show two sides of misogyny (sexism), an undercurrent
of a mentality of modern Europe.
This book analyzed four opera librettos
written in the era of Louis XIV, which feature Médée, a woman in Greek
mythology. Médée appeared in operas and plays many times from the 16th
century to the 17th century. It was during an absolute monarch
characterized by a rigid class system and patriarchal society that Médée was
represented as a witch. After deserted by her husband, she murdered her husband’s
lover, a king who is the father of the lover, and her own two sons with the
same husband for revenge. Why in that era was the story dramatized many times?
Through analysis, I looked at the essence of misogynic characteristics of
modern Europe. As a result, this book was born. (Author: Rinko Umeno)
Médée in
Operas: Misogyny in Modern Europe
Published on November 10th, 2014
Publisher: Suiseisha
Telephone: 03－5689－8410
Ask the publisher or the author about the
book.
Original article: http://wan.or.jp/book/?p=8274
Translated by Atsuko Ishikawa
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