Description
Book SynopsisProvides and analyzes examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writers
Trade Review"An important addition to the study of Ming-Qing women [that]…ground[s] the study of poetic images and syntax in the contexts of women’s experience as readers, writers, and historical agents."
-- Wai-yee Li * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *
"Xiaorong Li’s book opens up this lost world for readers. . . . This book offers an insightful peep into the inner chambers of late-imperial China. It is just as suitable for general readers as it is for those who have foundational knowledge of Chinese history and literature. . . . [A]n enjoyable introduction to Chinese women’s history."
-- Queenie Kwan Yee Lo * New England Journal of History *
"[A]n illuminating study of Chinese women’s poetry from the late Ming to the early Republic, focusing on the trope of the gui (“boudoir” or “inner quarters”). . . . In giving sensitive translations and insightful commentaries on this “boudoir” poetr, Xiaorong Li has demonstrated its relevance far beyond the inner quarters in documenting three centuries of women’s participation in social, political and cultural change."
-- Paul S. Ropp * The China Quarterly *
"The book successfully shows the manifold significance of the poetics of the gui, which fills a gap in Western scholarship on women poets in late imperial China. . . . A valuable addition to the field of gender studies and the field of traditional Chinese poetry and poetics."
-- Ji Hao * Ming Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Green Window | The Boudoir in Poetic Convention
2. A New Feminine Ideal | The Case of The Anthology of Correct Beginnings
3. Convention and Intervention | The Lyrical World of Gu Zhenli
4. Inside Out | The Gui in Times of Chaos
5. The Old Boudoir and the “New Woman” | The Late Qing and Early Republican Era
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Characters
Bibliography
Index
