{"product_id":"saying-all-that-can-be-keith-mcmahon-9780674291355","title":"Saying All That Can Be Said: The Art of Describing Sex in Jin Ping Mei","description":"In \u003ci\u003eSaying All That Can Be Said\u003c\/i\u003e, Keith McMahon presents the first full analysis of the sexually explicit portrayals in the Ming novel \u003ci\u003eJin Ping Mei\u003c\/i\u003e 金瓶梅 (\u003ci\u003eThe Plum in the Golden Vase\u003c\/i\u003e). Countering common views of those portrayals as \"just sex\" or as \"bad sex,\" he shows that they are rich in thematic meaning and loaded with social and aesthetic purpose. McMahon places the novel in the historical context of Chinese sexual culture, from which \u003ci\u003eJin Ping Mei\u003c\/i\u003e inherits the style of the elegant, metaphorical description of erotic pleasure, but which the anonymous author extends in an exploration of the explicit, the obscene, and the graphic. The novel uses explicit description to evaluate and comment on characters, situations, and sexual and psychic states of being. Echoing the novel's way of taking sex as a vehicle for reading the world, McMahon celebrates the richness and exuberance of \u003ci\u003eJin Ping Mei\u003c\/i\u003e's language of sex, which refuses imprisonment within the boundaries of orthodox culture's cleanly authoritative style, and which continues to inspire admiration from readers around the world. \u003ci\u003eSaying All That Can Be Said\u003c\/i\u003e will change the way we think about sexual culture in premodern China.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Keith McMahon\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674291352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674291355\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/10\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Keith McMahon","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44077894959359,"sku":"9780674291355","price":60.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d5c5d6b5-c750-435a-90a8-870486a42c13.jpg?v=1685472364","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/saying-all-that-can-be-keith-mcmahon-9780674291355","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}