Product Description
Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China combines literary and historical analysis to identify the modes of existence of male homoerotic sensibilities in late imperial China.
From the Back Cover
Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China is the richest exploration to date of late imperial Chinese literati interest in male love. Employing primary sources such as miscellanies (including diaries and letters), poetry, fiction and 'flower guides', Wu Cuncun argues that male homoeroticism played a central role in the cultural life of late imperial Chinese literati elites. Countering recent arguments that homosexuality was marginal and disparaged during this period, the book also seeks to trace the relationship of homoeroticism to status and power, arguing that existing paradigms for the study of sexuality, centred on identity and behaviour, must be extended and placed within the larger context of sexual culture. Only with this shift in methodological focus is it possible to approach the distinctive character of homoerotic sensibilities in late imperial China and the fashions through which they were performed.
In addition to historical portraits and analysis, the book also advances the concept of 'sensibilities' as a method for interpreting the complex range of homoerotic texts produced in late imperial China, recognising a need to think about sexuality not only in terms of behaviour and identity, but also in terms of culture: not necessarily national culture, but particular cultures in which practices and identities are given meaning and evaluated. Such an approach, bringing together historical and textual strategies, allows us to account for the rise in homoeroticism in late imperial China as a significant and far reaching sensibility (
fengqi) that in turn acted upon the wider cultural landscape.
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