The Sword or the Needle

The Female Knight-errant ("xia") in Traditional Chinese Narrative

von Roland Altenburger

430 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This study focussing on narratives about female knights-errant (nüxia) cuts along a thematic line in Chinese literary history, and thus seeks to contribute to understanding and appreciation mainly in three fields of inquiry: the formation of narrative subgenre; the literary representation of gender; and the particularities of the Chinese knight-errantry narrative. It traces the processes of textual collecting, editing, rewriting, and intertextual referencing by which narratives about female knights-errant were invented as, and forged into, a thematic sub-genre. The narratives about a character type who boldly transgresses gender boundaries are studied as an exemplary case for a general inquiry into the subversive significance of images of gender-bending strong female characters in the Chinese narrative tradition. Finally, the present study investigates into representations of the practice of Chinese knight-errantry, which includes assassination for social policing, private vengeance, and banditry.

• Reihe: Welten Ostasiens / Worlds of East Asia / Mondes de l'Extrême-Orient
• Themen: Gesellschaft und Sozialwissenschaften Gesellschaft und Kultur, allgemein Gesellschaftliche Gruppen, Gemeinschaften und Identitäten Gruppen
• ISBN: 9783034300360
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 07.12.2009
• Größe: 21 x 14.8 cm
• Verlag: Peter Lang Group AG, International Academic Publishers