Lost Bodies : Prostitution and Masculinity in Chinese Fiction.
Title:
Lost Bodies : Prostitution and Masculinity in Chinese Fiction.
Author:
Zamperini, Paola.
ISBN:
9789047444084
Personal Author:
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (250 pages)
Series:
Women and Gender in China Studies ; v.3
Women and Gender in China Studies
Contents:
Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Reading and Writing the Courtesan -- Chapter One Paradise Lost: The Fantastic Childhood of a Courtesan to be -- Chapter Two Lost and Found: The Socialization of the Prostituted Body -- Chapter Three Family Matters: Patterns of Solidarity and Discord in the Brothel -- Chapter Four Nobody's Son: Prostitution and the Disintegration of the Family Romance -- Chapter Five Taking Flight: Poverty, Sickness and Death -- Epilogue: Back to the Future: Nostalgia and Prostitution -- Bibliography -- Chinese Sources -- Western Sources -- Index.
Abstract:
This important contribution to the study of early modern Chinese fiction and representation of gender relations focuses on literary representations of the prostitute produced in the Ming and Qing periods. Following her heavily symbolic body, the present work maps this fictional heroine's journey from innocence to sex-work and beyond. This crucial angle allows the author to paint a picture of gender identity, sexuality, and desire that is at once unitary and multi-layered, and that comes to illuminate some of the major themes in the construction of Chinese modernity.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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