%0 Book
%A Roland Altenburger
%D 2009
%C Lausanne, Switzerland
%I Peter Lang Verlag
%@ 2235-5766
%T The Sword or the Needle
%B The Female Knight-errant ("xia") in Traditional Chinese Narrative
%U https://www.peterlang.com/document/1106302
%X This study focussing on narratives about female knights-errant (nüxia) cuts along a thematic line in Chinese literary history, and thus seeks to contribute to understanding and appreciation mainly in three fields of inquiry: the formation of narrative subgenre; the literary representation of gender; and the particularities of the Chinese knight-errantry narrative. It traces the processes of textual collecting, editing, rewriting, and intertextual referencing by which narratives about female knights-errant were invented as, and forged into, a thematic sub-genre. The narratives about a character type who boldly transgresses gender boundaries are studied as an exemplary case for a general inquiry into the subversive significance of images of gender-bending strong female characters in the Chinese narrative tradition. Finally, the present study investigates into representations of the practice of Chinese knight-errantry, which includes assassination for social policing, private vengeance, and banditry.
%K Frauen- und Geschlechterstudien, Sinologie, Aussereuropäische Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften
%G English