Collecting the self : body and identity in strange tale collections of late imperial China / by Sing-Chen Lydia Chiang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chiang, Sing-chen Lydia.

Series:

Sinica Leidensia 0169-9563 ; v. 67.

Sinica Leidensia, 0169-9563 ; v. 67

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

Horror tales, Chinese--18th century--History and criticism.

Horror tales, Chinese.

Short stories, Chinese--18th century--History and criticism.

Short stories, Chinese.

Pu, Songling, 1640-1715. Liao zhai zhi yi.

Pu, Songling.

Yuan, Mei, 1716-1798. Zi bu yu.

Yuan, Mei.

Ji, Yun, 1724-1805. Yue wei cao tang bi ji.

Ji, Yun.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Human body in literature.

Grotesque in literature.

Genre:

Short stories, Chinese.

Physical Description:

x, 284 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2005.

Language Note:

Includes translation of Pu Songling's "Gu er" entitled "The merchant's son".

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: Theorizing Chinese Strange Tale Collections 1

1 Theoretical Foundation 4

2 Methodological Issues 7

3 Thematic Parameters 9

4 Generic Traditions 10

I Zhiguai 12

II Zhiren 17

III Chuanqi 18

IV Xiaoshuo and Baiguan 26

V Biji and Xiaoshuo 27

5 Historical Context 28

I Pu Songling and the Kangxi Reign 28

II Culture and Collecting During the Late Qianlong Reign 35

III Yuan Mei 38

IV Ji Yun 41

6 Literary and Artistic Trends 45

Chapter 2 The Uncanny and Boundaries of the Self in Liaozhai zhiyi 60

1 The Problem 62

2 Textual and Commentary Histories of Liaozhai 68

3 Horror Fiction and the Recursive Structure of Liaozhai zhiyi 80

4 The Uncanny in Liaozhai zhiyi 83

5 The Deconstructed Male Gaze and Ming-Qing Literati Anxiety 86

6 The Recurrent Nightmare 89

7 Horrors Within the Patriarchal Order 97

8 The Haunted Home as the Haunted Mind 113

9 The Grotesque Male Body and Ambiguous Masculine Identity 119

10 The Terrified Exorcist 122

Chapter 3 Body, Power, and Fantastic Discourse in Liaozhai zhiyi 127

1 Portrait of Pu Songling 127

2 Body and Identity in Liaozhai zhiyi 131

3 The Body in Late Imperial Cultural and Fictional Discourses 132

4 The Confucian Body and Literati Identity in "Jiaonuo" 134

5 The Phallic Woman, the Castrated Man, and the Problem of Normative Gender Construction in "A Woman Warrior" 143

6 Masquerade and Self-Identity in "The Merchant's Son" 148

7 Sign and Meaning in Liaozhai zhiyi 153

Chapter 4 The Grotesque Body and Literati Identities in Zi buyu 157

1 Forbidden Subjects and the Literati Subject 160

2 The Literati Self and the Shifting Boundaries of Humanhood 166

3 The Sexed Body as Grotesque 176

Chapter 5 Creation, Transmission, and the Ghostly Poet in Yuewei caotang biji 197

1 "Nothing but Self-torture" 197

2 Discourse of a (Ghost)writer 201

3 The Uncanny Other as Self 217

4 Ghostly Origin and the Problem of Originality 231

Epilogue: Theoretical Implications 244

1 The Uncanny in Comparative Perspective 244

2 The Uncanny and Correlative Cosmology 246

3 The Uncanny and Literati Self-Representation 249

Appendix "The Merchant's Son" / Pu Songling 252.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [259]-269) and index.

Contains:

Pu, Songling, 1640-1715. Gu er. English

ISBN:

9004142037

OCLC:

57388993