Description
Book SynopsisGendered Persona and Poetic Voice considers the effects on poetic voice of a conventional feminine persona, the abandoned woman, in early Chinese song lyric (ci) poems. The author reads the literary cross-dressing and ventriloquism of these mostly male-authored poems in light of the highly indeterminate Chinese poetic language. This study of persona and poetic voice will benefit scholars of lyric poetry in any language.
Trade ReviewMaija Bell Samei goes beyond recent feminist readings of ci to seriously consider the ambiguity of gender in these poems. This book frees us from the assumption of a univocal persona in the lyric poetry of China and opens up new ways of reading not only ci but also other genres. Future work in the field must take this study into account. -- Stuart Sargent, Colorado State University
Gendered Persona and Poetic Voice is the first sustained study of the historical development and manipulation of the abandoned woman figure in early Chinese poetic genres, the song lyric in particular. Engaging with contemporary theories of performance and poetics, Dr. Bell Samei’s many nuanced and insightful analyses of this feminine figure, in examples drawn from both popular and literati poetic traditions, introduce challenging perspectives on critical issues of gender, voice, and persona. An invaluable contribution to the fields of Chinese and comparative literature and gender studies. -- Grace S. Fong, McGill University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: Voice, Persona, and Gendered Convention: Who is Speaking? Chapter 2 "A thousand, ten thousand resentments": The Story of a Convention Chapter 3 Magpies, Waterclocks, and Lies: "Images" of Voice Chapter 4 The Abandoned Woman as Object, Topos, and Ventriloquist's Puppet Chapter 5 Conclusion
