Title: PRACTICING EROTIC FICTION AND ROMANTICIZING LATE-MING WRITING PRACTICE
Abstract:In this article, I will explore the interaction between the Ming erotic novella and epistolary manual. I will focus on twelve love letters which are copied into letter-writing manuals, in whole or in ...In this article, I will explore the interaction between the Ming erotic novella and epistolary manual. I will focus on twelve love letters which are copied into letter-writing manuals, in whole or in part, from Ming erotic novellas. These erotic novellas did not circulate in individual editions in the late Ming but were packaged into Ming popular almanacs. Both the Ming erotic novella and epistolary manual were incorporated into the popular almanac as two sub-types. Therefore, they may have shared both similar concerns and common readership. I will argue that whereas the erotic novella provides the letter-writing manual with model love letters, the latter changes the nuances of the love letters borrowed from the former. The letter-writing manual circulating in the book market makes the intimate love affair, as narrated in the novella, a commodity publicly imitable. In other words, the erotic fiction was brought into social practice. In the meanwhile, the choice of sexual description or romantic expression but not other parts of the novella by the compilers of the epistolary manuals indicates that they tried to romanticize or sensualize the practice of letter-writing for the purpose of mass consumption.Read More
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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