Noh texts are usually seen as mere aids for performance. They are routinely denied recognition as autonomous and important literary productions. Yet, maintains the author of this interesting reevaluation, "no literature in the world can surpass these plays' unique brilliance, and beauty."
There is obviously much more to the text of noh than a mere descriptive analysis of the synopsis. Yet, as several authorities have stated: "Noh is not literature . . . it is an oral tradition, and performance itself is the only way in which Noh exists." This acceptance of performance over textual analysis has, however, resulted in some oddities.
Why, wonders Etsuko Terasaki, is the performance of the shite, the role of one of the actors, considered so important that the role of the waki (equally necessary) is downgraded to secondary. Why is the shite so privileged at the expense of other roles, that is has dominated and "mystified" critical opinion? This kind of reading ("linear, monolithic") so typical of noh scholars, deprives, she says, the text of its wealth and meaning.