Fr. 44.50

Fragrant Companions - A Play About Love Between Women

English · Paperback / Softback

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Description

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The Fragrant Companions is the most significant work of literature that portrays female same-sex love in the entire premodern Chinese tradition. It is at once an unconventional romantic comedy, a barbed satire, and a sympathetic portrayal of love between women.

List of contents

Introduction: Women in Love and the Business of Men in Li Yu’s Chuanqi Drama
Dramatis Personae
The Relationship Between Role Types and Characters
Note on Editions of Lianxiangban
List of Scenes
The Fragrant Companions
Appendix: Modes and Tunes
Notes
Selected Works on Li Yu and Same-Sex Love in Classical Chinese Fiction and Drama
Index

About the author

Li Yu (1611–1680) was a popular author, playwright, and theatrical impresario with a reputation for tales that tested social limits. He was born into a gentry family, but after the chaos of the Ming-Qing transition kept him from an official career, he became a commercially successful writer. Li’s works in English translation include A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China (Columbia, 2019).

Stephen Roddy is a professor of languages, literatures, and cultures at the University of San Francisco.

Ying Wang is Felicia Gressitt Bock Professor of Asian Studies at Mount Holyoke College.

Summary

Two young gentry women meet by chance at a nunnery in Yangzhou, where they fall in love at first sight. After they exchange poetry and recognize each other’s literary talents, their emotional bond deepens. They conduct a mock wedding ceremony at the nunnery and hatch a plan to spend the rest of their lives together. Their schemes are stymied by a series of obstacles, but in the end the two women find an unlikely resolution—a ménage-à-trois marriage.

The Fragrant Companions is the most significant work of literature that portrays female same-sex love in the entire premodern Chinese tradition. Written in 1651 by Li Yu, one of the most inventive and irreverent literary figures of seventeenth-century China, this play is at once an unconventional romantic comedy, a barbed satire, and a sympathetic portrayal of love between women. It offers a sensitive portrait of the two women’s passion for each other, depicts their intellectual pursuits and resourcefulness, and celebrates their partial triumph over social convention. At the same time, Li caustically mocks the imperial examination system and deflates the idealized image of the male scholar.

The Fragrant Companions is both an indispensable source for students and scholars of gender and sexuality in premodern China and a compelling work of literature for all readers interested in China’s rich theatrical traditions.

Product details

Authors Li Yu, Li (Book Review Editor Yu, Yu Li
Assisted by Stephen Roddy (Translation), Ying Wang (Translation), Wang Ying (Translation)
Publisher Columbia University Press
 
Languages English
Product format Paperback / Softback
Released 12.07.2022
 
EAN 9780231206297
ISBN 978-0-231-20629-7
No. of pages 400
Series Translations from the Asian Classics
Subjects Fiction > Poetry, drama

China, DRAMA / Asian / General, Of specific Lesbian interest, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Asian / Chinese, Relating to lesbians, Plays, Playscripts, C 1600 To C 1700, Classic and pre-20th century plays, Later 17th century c 1650 to c 1699, literary collections; literary criticism

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