The sword or the needle : the female knight-errant (xia) in traditional Chinese narrative / Roland Altenburger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Altenburger, Roland, author.

Series:

Worlds of East Asia ; v. 15.

Welten Ostasiens ; Bd. 15 = Worlds of East Asia, 1660-9131 ; Vol. 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese literature--History and criticism.

Chinese literature.

Women in literature.

Knights and knighthood in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

425 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bern ; New York : Peter Lang, ©2009.

Summary:

Focusing on narratives about female knights-errant (xia) along thematic lines in Chinese literacy history, this text provides an overview of the narrative subgenre, the literary representation of gender and the particularities of the Chinese knight-errantry narrative.

Contents:

Introduction : Xiaoshuo, Xia and the Literary Representation of the Female. Narrative Literature (xiaoshuo)

The History of Knight-errantry (xia)

Gender History and the Literary Representation of the Female

The Female Knight-errant

Social Policing, Vengeance, Banditry : The Basic Themes of the Female Xia Tale in the Tang. Social Policing and Gender Reversal : The Assassin Nie Yinniang

Avenging Swordswomen

The Female Bandit

Redressing Wrongs in Human Relations : Transformations of the Female Xia in the Song. Punishment for a Lack of Emotion

Retaliation for Ingratitude

Punishment for Disrespect

Summarising, Synthesising and Secularising : Constructing the Female Xia Tradition in the Late Ming. Demystifying and Secularising the Swordswoman : The Story of Lady Wei Eleven

Anthologies of Female Xia Stories in the Late Ming

Agencies of Order : Female Xia Lore in Qing-Dynasty Classical Tales. The Economy of Order and Desire : Pu Songling's Rewriting of the Avenging Female Xia Tale

Ambiguity of Order and Disorder : Wang Shizhen's Transcendent Female Xia

The Nie Yinniang Tradition in Classical Tales of the Qing

Immortal Swordswomen Ordering the World : An Early- and a Late-Qing Novel. Inversion of the Gender Hierarchy in Niixian waishi

On Becoming a Female Xia : Gendered Bodies in Xianxia wu huajian

The Female Xia in the Tangles of Romance : The Taming and Domestication of Shisanmei

Shisanmei in Ernü yingxiong zhuan

Parallels, Sequels, Revisions and Adaptations of Ernü yingxiong zhuan

Lü Siniang Assassinates the Yongzheng Emperor : Transformations of a Legend in Early-Republican Popular Fiction. The Legend of Lü Siniang

Lü Siniang in Embellished History and Knight-errantry Fiction

Reappraisals of the Female Xia in Modern Urban Popular Fiction around 1930. The Female Knight and the Vamp : Intertextual Reading in Zhang Henshui's Tixiao yinyuan

The Female Knight as a Modern Girl : Xu Zhuodai's Comic Xia Novel Nüxia hong kuzi

Swordswomen and Love : Gu Mingdao's Martial Arts Novel Huangjiang nüxia

Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-409) and index.

ISBN:

9783034300360

3034300360

OCLC:

424333877