Eroticism in Late Ming, Early Qing Fiction: the Beauteous Realm and the Sexual Battlefield
Seventeenth-century Chinese fiction is notorious for its obscenity and eroticism. This essay takes a look at a number of these novels and stories, some quite rare, and discusses how they dramatize the sexual situation. As sensational as these authors are, it is typical that once they entertain an er...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
1987
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| In: |
T'oung-pao
Year: 1987, Volume: 73, Issue: 4, Pages: 217-264 |
| Further subjects: | B
Girard, René (1923-2015)
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Seventeenth-century Chinese fiction is notorious for its obscenity and eroticism. This essay takes a look at a number of these novels and stories, some quite rare, and discusses how they dramatize the sexual situation. As sensational as these authors are, it is typical that once they entertain an erotic scene, they decisively dismiss it; at one moment they collude with illicit lovers, then at the next condemn them. They limit the portrait of abandon by treating sexual pleasure as inherently provisional. Successful, harmonious love, when portrayed at all, tends to be described in adumbrative fashion. The more detail, the more problematic and antagonistic love is made to seem. Sexual pleasure is at best an accidental paradise; at worst a battlefield where men must summon great energy in order to satisfy nearly inexhaustible women. By the latter half of the seventeenth century, fiction begins to purge itself of such explicit description, and a sexual conservatism sets in. |
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| Item Description: | BN: 73, HN: 4-5 |
| ISSN: | 1568-5322 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: T'oung-pao
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/156853287X00032 |