Date of Award
Summer 8-2018
Degree Name
Master of Arts (AM/MA)
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the reception and re-created history of the woman writer Ye Xiaoluan. Emphasis is on the changing literary images and related cultural products created and circulated by members of the literati class from the late Ming Dynasty to the early modern period. I argue the process can mainly be divided into three stages: 1) the formation and iconization of her image among the cultural elite in the late Ming period; 2) the deconstruction and consumption of her images in Qing dynasty; and 3) the substitution and fade-out of her images in early modern period. In the course of the investigation, I am particularly concerned with the subject of the receptive and re-creative activities. Different from previous studies, I find that the subject cannot be simply defined as a collection of single individuals (especially the male individuals who seek to project their desires on women), but more and more presents a trend of collectivism and generalizing. In the concluding part I attempt to explain this phenomenon. I suggest that Ye Xiaoluan in her cultural construction showed a “non-sexual” trait that could not be accommodated in the cultural order of the time, and that the subsequent acts of collective reception and re-creation may have stemmed from the desire to define her in a way that was less transgressive.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Beata Grant
Committee Members
Robert E. Hegel Jamie Newhard
Recommended Citation
Ding, Tian, "From the Inner Chamber to to the Marketplace: The Reception and Re-Creation of the Woman Writer Ye Xiaoluan" (2018). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1669.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1669