Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 1905-1948

Description

Charting the literary works and life journeys of eight leading women writers in modern China, Haiping Yan presents an examination of the politics and poetics of Chinese transcultural feminism within the boundaries of bourgeois feminist selfhood. Drawing on these women's vast works and dramatic lives, the book illuminates the range of Chinese women's literary and artistic achievements and explores the degree to which Chinese women writers re-invent their lives along with their writings. This impressive and fascinating study investigates vital sources for exploring the history and legacy of twentieth-century Chinese feminist consciousness, and as such will be of interest to scholars of feminist theory, cultural studies and theatre studies.

University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.

'...a powerfully written book that engages in a timely dialogue and debate with existing studies of Chinese women writers and women s writing; their meaning and significance with regard to the struggles of modern China; and the historical choices made in that violent first half of the twentieth century.' - Xueping Zhong, The Journal of Asian Studies 'Yan carefully balances historical inquiry and literary criticism to highlight the ways in which the writers aspired to overcome many of the pressures bearing on contemporary Chinese women ... Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination is an important complement to recent works by Tani Barlow and Nicole Huang.' - Norman Smith, Pacific Affairs, Winter 2006 "Yan Haiping's book is a welcome addition to the ongoing endeavor to reexamine women's recent literary past in the Chinese context." - Amy Dooling, Asian Theatre Journal 25, 2