Theaters Of Desire: Authors, Readers, And The Reproduction Of Early Chinese Song-drama, 1300-2000 Authors, Readers, And The Reproduction Of Early Chinese Song-drama, 1300-2000

Blending a flair for textual nuance with theoretical engagement, Theaters of Desire not only contributes to our understanding of the most influential form of early Chinese song-drama in local and international cultural contexts, but adds a Chinese perspective to the scholarship on print culture, authorship, and the regulatory discourses of desire. The book argues that, particularly between 1550 and 1680, Chinese elite editors rewrote and printed early plays and songs, so-called Yuan-dynasty zaju and sanqu, to imagine and embody new concepts of authorship, readership and desire, an interpretation that contrasts starkly with the national and racially-oriented reception of song-drama developed by European critics after 1735 and subsequently modified by Japanese and Chinese critics after 1897. By analyzing the critical and material facets of the early song and play tradition across different historical periods and cultural settings, Theaters of Desire presents a compelling case study of literary canon formation. -- Amazon.com Introduction: Rewriting Early Chinese Zaju Song-drama For Transnational, National, And Local Contexts -- Ch. 1. Art Song Anthologies, Editorial Attributions, And The Cult Of Affect: Guan Hanqing (ca. 1220 -- Ca. 1300) And The Transformation Of Attestory Authorship -- Ch. 2. Early Song-drama Collections, Examination Requirements, And The Exigencies Of Desire: Li Kaixian (1502-68), Zang Maoxun (1550-1620), And The Uses Of Reproductive Authorship -- Ch. 3. Xixiang Ji Editions, The Bookmarket, And The Discourse On Obscenity: Wang Jide (d. 1623), Jin Shengtan (1608-61), And The Creation Of Uncommon Readers -- Conclusion: Thinking Through Authors, Readers, And Desire. Patricia Sieber. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [223]-243) And Index. In the first Chinese history of Chinese literature, History of Chinese Humanities (Zhongguo wenxue shi, 1904), Lin Chuanjia (1877-1921) faulted not only Yuan-dynasty literature for its alleged vulgarity, but also took the well-known Japanese proponent of Chinese fiction and drama, Sasagawa Rinpu (1870-1949), to task for mistaking "low-class customs" for "high-brow literature": The literary forms of the Yuan deteriorated steadily.