Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series)

This volume analyzes the representation of gender and desire in elite, male-authored literary texts in China dating from roughly 200 B.C. until 1000 A.D. Above all, it discusses the intimate relationship between the representation of gender and the political and social self-representations of elite men and shows where gender and social hierarchies cross paths. Paul Rouzer argues that when male authors articulated themselves as women, the resulting articulation was inevitably influenced by this act of identification. Articulated women are always located within a non-existent liminal space between ostensible object and ostensible subject, a focus of textual desire both through possession and through identification. Nor, in male-authored texts, is this articulation ever fully resolved--the potential of multiple interpretations is continually present. ARTICULATED LADIES: GENDER AND THE MALE COMMUNITY IN EARLY CHINESE TEXTS Preface and Acknowledgments Contents Table of Dynasties Introduction 1 The Give and Take of Gender Reading Gender Positioning Gender 2 The Traffle in Goddesses Cuckolding the King Dream-Panders and Impotent Lovers Reading Rivalry 3 The Competitive Community Poetry and Literati Self-fashioning Competition and Violence Return to Poetry 4 Spectator Sports Canonizing the "Feminine" Voice Subverting the Canon: Structure, Voyeurism, Envy Aside: Court Poet or Poet at Court:? Paintings and Mirrors Short-circuit? 5 The Textual Life of Savages Constructing Aliens Men on the Border The Dilemma of Surrender The Rejected Courtier Wang Zhaojun Erasing the Body 6 From Ritual to Romance Rituals of Seduction Romancing Talent Reasons for Romancing (and for Not Romancing) Romancing Replaced 7 Honor Among the Roués The Cultural Propensities of the Client Sentiment and Poetic Exchange Afterword: Lost in a Sea of Coral Tang Public Erotic Li Shangyin's Private Erotic A Sea Change Appendix A Dalliance in the Immortals' Den Reference Matter Notes Works Cited Index Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series It Is A Commonplace Of Chinese Literary History That Elite, Male Authors Wrote In The Voice Of Women To Comment On Their Own Lives, Particularly In The Context Of Their Public Lives And Their Relationship To The Ruler. In A Series Of Essays On Elite, Male-authored Literary Texts Dating From Roughly 200 B.c. Until A.d. 1000, Paul Rouzer Analyzes The Representation Of Gender And Desire In Traditional China And Explores The Ways In Which Educated Men Wrote Both About And As Women. The Essays Focus On What These Writings Can Tell Us Not Only About Gender Relations But Also About The Ways In Which These Male Authors Attempted To Define Themselves And Their Place In The Political And Social World.--book Jacket. 1. The Give And Take Of Gender -- 2. The Traffic In Goddesses -- 3. The Competitive Community -- 4. Spectator Sports -- 5. The Textual Life Of Savages -- 6. From Ritual To Romance -- 7. Honor Among The Roues -- Afterword: Lost In A Sea Of Coral -- App. A. Dalliance In The Immortals' Den. Paul Rouzer. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [399]-414) And Index.