Description
Book SynopsisThis magnificent collection of eleven early [1250–1450] Chinese plays will give readers a vivid sense of life and a clear understanding of dramatic literature during an extraordinarily eventful period in Chinese history. Not only are the eleven plays in this volume expertly translated into lively, idiomatic English; they are each provided with illuminating, scholarly introductions that are yet fully intelligible to the educated lay reader. A marvelous volume.--Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania
Trade Review"An exciting new resource for undergraduate teaching. The translated plays were clearly chosen for their literary value as well as their significance to the history of Chinese drama, and each is preceded by an introduction providing its historical context In their lucid introduction, West and Idema describe the historical background of early drama, discussing its urban setting, the theater, the actors, and the sources to trace the transformation of Yuan drama from urban popular performance into an elite reading form by the end of the Ming dynasty". --Kimberly Besio, Colby College, in
The Journal of Asian StudiesWest and Idema's Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals represents a milestone in the reception of early Chinese drama in the West. Not only do the translations of eleven plays take precision, readability, and range to new heights, but the substantial yet accessible Introduction, together with a number of useful appendices, illustrations, and tables, make it the anthology of choice for courses in Chinese literature, world literature, and theater.--Patricia Sieber, Ohio State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Mending a Broken Lineage: Women, Writing, Theology; Fear & Women's Writing: Choosing the Better Part; 'A Wretched Choice?': Evangelical Women & the Word; 'My God Became Flesh': Angela of Foligno Writing the Incarnation; Speaking Funk: Womanist Insights into the Lives of Syncletica & Macrina; 'A Moor of One's Own': Writing & Silence in Sara Maitland's "A Book of Silence"; With Prayer & Pen: Reading Mother E J Dabney's "What It Means to Pray Through"; Writing a Life, Writing Theology: Edith Stein in the Company of the Saints; Writing Hunger on the Body: Simone Weil's Ethic of Hunger & Eucharistic Practice; The Body, to be Eaten, to be Written: A Theological Reflection on the Act of Writing in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee"; Not with One Voice: The Counterpoint of Life, Diaspora, Women, Theology, & Writing; Embodying Theology: Motherhood as Metaphor/Method; Postscript: Wounded Writing / Healing Writing.
