本課程將透過導論外加五個單元來幫助同學奠定理解《源氏物語》所需要的基本知識與概念。導論以及女性文學的單元會概觀日本的物語文學與女性文學的特質，世界觀的單元則提供理解《源氏物語》所呈現日本平安時代的社會狀況，進而聚焦於平安時代的戀愛與結婚來探討社會問題，並透過分析作中男女角色的人物描寫來深入理解這些社會議題，最後加上文化呈現的單元來看平安時代的文化特色。

This course will help students establish the basic knowledge and concepts needed to understand "The Tale of Genji" through an introduction and five units. The introduction and women's literature units will provide an overview of Japanese monogatari literature and the characteristics of women's literature. The worldview unit will provide an understanding of the social conditions of Japan's Heian period presented in "The Tale of Genji", and then focus on love and marriage in the Heian period to explore social issues. It will also analyze the character descriptions of male and female characters in the work to gain a deeper understanding of these social issues. Finally, a cultural presentation unit will be added to look at the cultural characteristics of the Heian period.

《源氏物語》中文翻譯本目前在台灣比較普遍的是林文月翻譯版，如果能夠一併參考中國豐子愷翻譯版就更好。看得懂日語的同學，可以考慮日本小學館出版的《源氏物語》或是日本知名作家的現代日語翻譯版也可。其他的部份會在第一堂課介紹。

The Chinese translation of "The Tale of Genji" is currently more commonly translated by Lin Wenyue in Taiwan. It would be better if the Chinese translation by Feng Zikai could also be referred to. Students who can read Japanese may consider "The Tale of Genji" published by Nippon Shogakukan or a modern Japanese translation by a well-known Japanese writer. The other parts will be introduced in the first class.