From deluge to discourse : myth, history, and the generation of Chinese fiction / Deborah Lynn Porter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Porter, Deborah Lynn, author.

Series:

Suny series in Chinese philosophy and culture

SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mythology, Chinese.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 284 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York Press, [1996]

Summary:

Starting with a reevaluation of the critical scholarship done on the Chinese text, the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, the author challenges the view of the text as a product of historical composition. Porter then argues that the discursive structures of flood myths, elements of which appear in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, have their origins in an attempt to mediate linguistically the frightening consequences of the falsification of cosmological truths. The heuristic potential of the psychoanalytical theory of the symbol is used to explain the specific cosmogonic intentions underlying the genesis of myth, as well as broader manifestations of historical, social, and cultural behavior, most particularly literary works like the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan. The author explains how mythic symbols invested with cosmogonic and regenerative significance are appropriated in the literary resolution of a socio-political trauma analogous to those mediated by flood myths. Finally, she argues that not simply the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan but Chinese fictional discourse in general is most appropriately understood as a wholly symbolic form.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

ONE CONTEXTUALIZINC THE TEXT: THE DISCOVERY, COMPILATION, TRANSMISSION, AND TRADITIONAL APPRECIATION OF THE Mu T'I'en-tzu chuan

TWO SEE YŪ LATER: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF CHINESE FLOOD MYTHS

THREE TOWARD AN AESTHETIC OF SYMBOL IN EARLY CHINESE THOUGHT

FOUR SYMBOLIC FOUNDATIONS or THE MU T’IEN-TZU CHUAN.’ K’UN-LUN, HO-TSUNG, AND HSI-WANG-MU

FIVE THE GENERATION OF SYMBOLISM IN THE MU T’IEN-TZU CHUAN

SIX HEAVEN’s TEXT AND THE INVENTION or FICTIONAL DISCOURSE IN CHINA

APPENDIX

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-273) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438416342

1438416342

9780585075198

0585075190