9791221502428_06.pdf
This essay considers how early modern Chinese romance novels conceive of female agency and how this conception was received by prominent cultural elites in eighteenth-century England. In his notes to Hau Kiou Choaan, the first English translation of a full-length Chinese novel, Thomas Percy referred...
| Γλώσσα: | English |
|---|---|
| Έκδοση: |
Firenze University Press
2024
|
| Διαθέσιμο Online: | https://books.fupress.com/doi/capitoli/979-12-215-0242-8_6 |
| Περίληψη: | This essay considers how early modern Chinese romance novels conceive of female agency and how this conception was received by prominent cultural elites in eighteenth-century England. In his notes to Hau Kiou Choaan, the first English translation of a full-length Chinese novel, Thomas Percy referred to the novel’s heroine as a “masculine woman”, displaying a peculiar misreading of its trope of female cross-dressing. The essay argues that the increasing association of women with the private sphere in eighteenth-century English culture is a crucial context to consider when we study the initial spread of Chinese fiction in England. |
|---|
