Collecting the self : body and identity in strange tale collections of late imperial China / by Sing-Chen Lydia Chiang.

Includes translation of Pu Songling's "Guer 賈兒" entitled "The merchant's son."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-269) and index.

Ch. 1. Introduction : theorizing Chinese strange tale collections -- Ch. 2. The uncanny and boundaries of the self in Liaozhai zhiyi -- Ch. 3. Body, power, and fantastic discourse in Liaozhai zhiyi -- Ch. 4.  The grotesque body and literati identities in Zi buyu -- Ch. 5. Creation, transmission, and the ghostly poet in Yuewei caotang biji -- Epilogue : theoretical implications -- App. "The merchant's son" / Pu Songling.

Chinese strange tale collections contain short stories about ghosts and animal spirits, supra-human heroes and freaks, exotic lands and haunted homes, earthquake and floods, and other perceived "anomalies" to accepted cosmic and social norms. As such, this body of literature is a rich repository of Chinese myths, folklore, and unofficial "histories". These collections also reflect Chinese attitudes towards normalcy and strangeness, perceptions of civilization and barbarism, and fantasies about self and other. Inspired in part by Freud's theory of the uncanny, this book explores the emotive subtexts of late imperial strange tale collections to consider what these stories tell us about suppressed cultural anxieties, the construction of gender, and authorial self-identity.

Local access dig.pdf. [Chiang-Collecting the Self.pdf]

Access to Brill eBook via BC Libraries