Song Dynasty Figures of Longing and Desire

Gender and Interiority in Chinese Painting and Poetry
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-36278-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 780 g

Reihe: Women and Gender in China Studies

This book is the winner of the 2020 Joseph Levenson Pre-1900 Book Prize, awarded by the Association for Asian Studies.

In Song Dynasty Figures of Longing and Desire, Lara Blanchard analyzes images of women in painting and poetry of China’s middle imperial period, focusing on works that represent female figures as preoccupied with romance. She discusses examples of visual and literary culture in regard to their authorship and audience, examining the role of interiority in constructions of gender, exploring the rhetorical functions of romantic images, and considering connections between subjectivity and representation. The paintings in particular have sometimes been interpreted as simple representations of the daily lives of women, or as straightforward artifacts of heteroerotic desire; Blanchard proposes that such works could additionally be interpreted as political allegories, representations of the artist’s or patron’s interiorities, or models of idealized femininity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

C W Blanchard, Lara

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunststile Asiatische Kunst
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Ost- & Südostasiatische Literatur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations

Introduction
1 Gendered Subjectivity and Representing Interiority
Subjectivity and Authorship
Pictorial Representations of Inner Feelings
Courtly and Literati Audiences: Evidence from Commentaries
2 Political Interpretations of Desire
Handscrolls of Goddess of the Luo River
The Beijing Handscroll Night Revels of Han Xizai
3 Male Audience and Authorship: Projecting Desire and Longing onto the Female Figure
Huizong’s Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk
Mou Yi’s Pounding Cloth
4 The Female Audience: Modeling Idealized Femininity
Women and Fan Paintings
Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers: A Bed-Screen?
Conclusion: Interiority and the Value of Connection

Works Cited
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Lara C. W. Blanchard, Ph.D. (2001), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is Luce Professor of East Asian Art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She has published articles on gender and Chinese art from the Song to Ming dynasties.