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Accidental Incest, Filial Cannibalism, and Other Peculiar Encounters in Late Imperial Chinese Literature
Contributor(s): Lu, Tina (Author)

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ISBN: 0674031563     ISBN-13: 9780674031562
Publisher: Harvard University Press
OUR PRICE: $41.95  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: January 2009
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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Asian - Chinese
- Social Science | Popular Culture
Dewey: 895.109
LCCN: 2008035458
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6.3" W x 9.1" L (1.35 lbs) 306 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Chinese
Features: Bibliography, Dust Cover, Illustrated, Index, Maps
Review Citations: Chronicle of Higher Education 02/13/2009 pg. 21
Choice 07/01/2009
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Described as "all under Heaven," the Chinese empire might have extended infinitely, covering all worlds and cultures. That ideology might have been convenient for the state, but what did late imperial people really think about the scope and limits of the human community? Writers of late imperial fiction and drama were, the author argues, deeply engaged with questions about the nature of the Chinese empire and of the human community. Fiction and drama repeatedly pose questions concerning relations both among people and between people and their possessions: What ties individuals together, whether permanently or temporarily? When can ownership be transferred, and when does an object define its owner? What transforms individual families or couples into a society? Tina Lu traces how these political questions were addressed in fiction through extreme situations: husbands and wives torn apart in periods of political upheaval, families so disrupted that incestuous encounters become inevitable, times so desperate that people have to sell themselves to be eaten.

Contributor Bio(s): Lu, Tina: - Tina Lu is Professor of Chinese Literature at Yale University.
 
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