{"product_id":"eroticism-and-other-literary-conventions-i-hsien-wu-9781604979770","title":"Eroticism and Other Literary Conventions in Chinese Literature: Intertextuality in The Story of the Stone","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is in the Cambria Sinophone World Series, headed by Victor Mair (University of Pennsylvania).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e, also known as \u003cem\u003eDream of the Red Chamber\u003c\/em\u003e, is unquestionably the most beloved and most celebrated work of prose fiction in Chinese literary history. For two and half centuries, the novel has inspired a ceaseless flow of critical interpretation ranging from the allegorical, autobiographical, and bibliographical to the poststructural, forming a particular field of study called \u003cem\u003ehongxue\u003c\/em\u003e (\"red\" studies).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuilding on the novel's rich content and this vast scholarship, and using Julia Kristeva's terms on intertextuality, especially her notions that every human being is nothing more than an intersection of preexistent discourses created by human language and text, and that reality can only be seized as a reconstructed fiction that exists through its relation to previous fiction, this book presents a new understanding of the novel. \u003cem\u003eEroticism and Other Literary Conventions in Chinese Literature\u003c\/em\u003e examines how \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e dramatizes human experiences by responding to previous literature, particularly those openly denounced by the novel's internal narrator, the mythic stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile there has been much discussion about human lives and emotions presented in \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e, the mainstream humanist scholarship often reads the text as a reflection of historical figures (e.g., the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e) or constructed (but \"real\") persons. This book, however, argues that while the novel is centrally concerned with defining \u003cem\u003eren\u003c\/em\u003e (human), it is equally involved in investigating \u003cem\u003ewen\u003c\/em\u003e (literature). Thus, the core tenet of The Stone lies in the intricate symbiosis between \u003cem\u003eren\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ewen\u003c\/em\u003e, which gives rise to \u003cem\u003ewenren\u003c\/em\u003e (literati) and \u003cem\u003erenwen\u003c\/em\u003e (humanities), and even more to the \u003cem\u003ewen\u003c\/em\u003e that produces \u003cem\u003ewenti\u003c\/em\u003e (genre), \u003cem\u003ewenhua\u003c\/em\u003e (culture), and \u003cem\u003ewenming\u003c\/em\u003e (civilization)-an evolution that had concerned the Chinese literati for centuries but was fictionalized for the first time in \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow does \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e utilize language and text to make meanings of the human lives it creates? How does \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e exist through its relation to previous fiction? To answer these questions, this book argues that the mythic stone's harsh critiques of historical romance (\u003cem\u003eyeshi\u003c\/em\u003e), erotic fiction (\u003cem\u003efengyue bimo\u003c\/em\u003e), and scholar-and-beauty fiction (\u003cem\u003ecaizi jiaren\u003c\/em\u003e) cannot be taken at face value. Instead, they signify The Stone's anxiety of influence and allude to the nature of intertextuality. In this light, this book argues that the novel's construction of lust shows its indebtedness to erotic literature; its making of romance is created through the use of drama as reading and as performance; in the protagonist's confrontation with and final submission to social expectations, the novel wrestles with the portrayal of young literati in the scholar-and-beauty convention; and finally, following a genealogy of objects featured in literature to animate human lives, the mythic stone is created to question the convention of storytelling, not only in pre-existing fiction but also in the novel's many previous lives in manuscript versions and printed editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is a must-read for anyone interested in \u003cem\u003eThe Story of the Stone\u003c\/em\u003e, and for readers interested in novel, fiction, drama, and other literary genres and subgenres in Chinese literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e I-Hsien Wu\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1604979771\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781604979770\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cambria Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/28\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d","brand":"I-Hsien Wu","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44213236760831,"sku":"9781604979770","price":109.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_718979f4-138c-47b8-9789-da1b257c3681.jpg?v=1692112792","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/eroticism-and-other-literary-conventions-i-hsien-wu-9781604979770","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}