Testing the Literary - Prose and the Aesthetic in Early Modern China

Alexander Des Forges reads shiwen from a literary perspective, showing how the examination essay redefined prose aesthetics, transformed the work of writing, and marked the aesthetic as a key arena for contestation of authority as candidates, examiners, and critics joined to form a dominant social class of literary producers.

About the author

Alexander Des Forges is Professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts–Boston.

Summary

Alexander Des Forges reads shiwen from a literary perspective, showing how the examination essay redefined prose aesthetics, transformed the work of writing, and marked the aesthetic as a key arena for contestation of authority as candidates, examiners, and critics joined to form a dominant social class of literary producers.

Product details

• Authors: Alexander Des Forges, Des Forges Alexander, Alexander Des Forges
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2021
• EAN: 9780674251182
• ISBN: 978-0-674-25118-2
• No. of pages: 308
• Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series; Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph (HUP); Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Essays, feuilletons, literary criticism, interviews; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; LITERARY CRITICISM / General, Literature: history & criticism, Literature: history and criticism