Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays

Description

Although Chinese narrative, and especially the genres of colloquial fiction, have been subjected to intensive scholarly scrutiny, no comprehensive volume has provided a framework that would permit an overall view of the tradition. The distinguished contributors to this volume have taken an important first step in making possible the consideration of Chinese narrative at the level of comparative and general literary scholarship. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword I. Early Historical and Fictional Narrative Early Chinese Narrative: The Tso-Chuan as Example The Six Dynasties Chih-Kuai and the Birth of Fiction A Taste For Apricots: Approaches to Chinese Fiction II. Ming and Early Ch'ing Fiction Narrative Patterns in San-Kuo and Shui-Hu The Nature of Ling Meng-Ch'u's Fiction Chang Chu-P'o's Commentary on the Chinfing Mei Sui Γang Yen-I and the Aesthetics of the Seventeenth-Century Suchou Elite III. Middle and Late Ch'ing Fiction Allegory in Hsi-Yu Chi and Hung-Loumeng Point of View, Norms, and Structure: Hung-Lou Meng and Lyrical Fiction Lyricvisionin Chinese Narrative Tradition: A Reading of Hung-Loumeng and Ju-Lin Wai-Shih Ritual and Narrative Structure Inju-Lin Wai-Shih The Scholar-Novelist and Chinese Culture: A Reappraisal of Ching-Hua Yuan IV. Chinese Narrative Theory Towards a Critical Theory of Chinese Narrative Contributors Index