TLS touts UC expert's take on Japanese classic
The Times Literary Supplement calls UC associate professor Gergana Ivanova's latest book 'a work of immense value'
The Times Literary Supplement wrote about University of Cincinnati author Gergana Ivanova's book Unbinding The Pillow Book, a critique of a Japanese literary classic.
Ivanova's 2018 book (Columbia University Press) examines the changing ways in which people have related to Sei Shonagon's classic The Pillow Book.
UC professor Gergana Ivanova's "Unbinding The Pillow Book."
"Ivanova describes the ways Sei and her work have been depicted, interpreted, marketed, enjoyed and disliked over a thousand years," The Times' Claire Kohda Hazelton wrote.
Hazelton called Ivanova's literary criticism "a work of immense value." Ivanova's book has received strong reviews elsewhere as well.
"Meticulously researched and persuasively argued, Unbinding The Pillow Book offers a dynamic portrait of one of the most important works of world literature and of the woman who wrote it more than a millennium ago," wrote Michael Emmerich, professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Unbinding The Pillow Book is an erudite and often entertaining guide to the persona of Sei Shonagon and her peripatetic text, The Pillow Book," Rutgers University professor Paul Schalow wrote. "I cannot think of a better match between a scholar and her subject. It is a dazzling accomplishment."
Become a Bearcat
- Apply online or get more information about undergraduate enrollment by calling 513-556-1100.
- Learn more about UC's many undergraduate and graduate programs.
Related Stories
Scientists discover how snakes stand upright without limbs
March 12, 2026
Earth.com highlights a study co-authored by UC Professor Bruce Jayne, an expert in snake locomotion, about how snakes stand upright without arms or legs.
Pi Day: Where math meets dessert
March 12, 2026
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 around the world, as March 14 represents its first three numbers, 3.14. It’s a yearly celebration for math lovers to see who can recite the most digits, talk about its history and have an excuse to eat many, many pies! First, the math: PI is the Greek letter “π” and it is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant, as it is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It has been calculated to over 50 trillion digits beyond its decimal point and will continue to repeat, as it is an irrational and transcendent number.
PHOTOS: UC greenhouse offers colorful respite from winter
March 11, 2026
Atop a roof at the University of Cincinnati, six high-tech glass houses that grow plants for biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Greenhouse Manager Audrey Trauth is here most days tending the plant collection, which is organized into biomes to accommodate the desert, temperate and tropical plants.