The Testimony of a Woodcutter, Questioned by a High Police Commissioner
Yes, sir. Certainly, it was I who found the body. (…)
Source: Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke “In a Grove.” In: Ryunosuke Akutagawa Rashomon and other Stories. Translated by Takashi Kojima. Bantam Books 1959.
current affairs
In The Atlantic article “The uncomfortable truth about campus rape policies,” Emily Yoffe discusses campus policy dealing with allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
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questions
1. What testimonies in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove” are consistent with one another? What testimonies are inconsistent? How so?
2. Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) [🔗] is a film version of “In a Grove”. This title of the film introduced the expression in English of “a Rashomon effect” when multiple people give different interpretations of the same effect. To what extent might there be a difference in interpretation in the testimonies in “In a Grove”? To what extent are the testimonies just plain inconsistent with one another?
3. Do you find some testimonies more plausible than others? Are there certain testimonies or parts of testimonies that we have reason to believe or disbelieve by the end of the story or the film?
4. Kurosawa wrote in his autobiography: "Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing." How are the various testimonies self-serving?
5. How do the testimonies in Kurosawa’s Rashomon agree and diverge from the testimonies in Kutagowe’s “In a Grove”?
6. Emily Yoffe’s “The uncomfortable truth about campus rape policies” opens up with a sexual encounter on campus that interpreted differently by the parties involved. How do current campus policies deal with allegations of sexual assault? What is Yoffe’s view of these policies? What is your assessment?