Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables

Erscheinungsjahr 1998
ISBN: 978-90-04-10998-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Chinesisch, Band 41, 356 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 780 g

Reihe: Sinica Leidensia

In 1967 a body of Chinese texts was discovered in a tomb outside Shanghai. It contained a set of unique examples of an oral genre favoured by 'unlearned classes' in the late imperial period (15th century), best called 'chantefables', appearing at the beginning of a profound historical shift which resulted in a broadening of the uses of writing and printing in China. These texts are now generally seen to occupy an important place in the development of Chinese literature as a whole, and of Chinese vernacular literature in particular.
In the first monographic treatment of 'all' the chantefable corpus in English the author, by examination from a more anthropological view, points out that these 'oral traditional texts' can only be appreciated in the festival, ritual and performative context of their derivation and reception. Topics dealt with in this important work include the popular interpretation of Confucian orthodoxies, the literary recycling of the oral tradition, and the influence of chantefables on the development of Chinese vernacular fiction.
The author offers interesting comparative perspective on the different social consequences of print technology in China and the West.
Illustrations of ten chantefable woodblocks are included.

Autoren/Hrsg.

McLaren, Anne

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstformen, Kunsthandwerk Installations-, Aktions-, Computer- und Videokunst
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Über Autor(innen)

Anne E. Mclaren, Ph.D. in Chinese liturature, Australian National University, is Senior Lecturer and Head, Chinese program, at La Trobe University, Melbourne. She has published extensively in the field of Ming popular narratives, including The Chinese Femme-fatale (University of Sydney, 1994).