Women writers as an analytical category has since the late 1990s gained considerable traction in the studies of pre-modern Chinese literature, with translations, anthologies, and thematic explorations surfacing anew e...Women writers as an analytical category has since the late 1990s gained considerable traction in the studies of pre-modern Chinese literature, with translations, anthologies, and thematic explorations surfacing anew every few years in either monographs or edited volumes. Reference to feminist literary criticism as an analytical framework, however, is still a fairly recent development—that is, until Ronald Egan’s definitive work under review here on the most well-known female poet of the entire Chinese tradition, Li Qingzhao 李清照(1084-ca.1155). Not only is this 11-chapter, 422-page treatment of a single woman a first in English scholarship, Egan’s theoretical stance also marks a departure from earlier works that place their subject matters in a more native context. That alone makes The Burden of Female Talent a must read for all students of Chinese literature. Moreover, throughout the whole book Egan never allows theoretical discussion to overshadow his focused analyses of Li Qingzhao and the circumstances and challenges she faced as a woman writer, thus retaining the distinctive appeal of the book to the more traditional readership of Sinology. This is not to discount, however, Egan’s conversance with feminist criticism;in fact, his “substantial debt”(p.8) to it is very recognizable, since the underlying approaches are fully subsumable under much of the preoccupations and assumptions of feminist literary theory—and, consequently, susceptible to critiques of the theory in general.展开更多
文摘Women writers as an analytical category has since the late 1990s gained considerable traction in the studies of pre-modern Chinese literature, with translations, anthologies, and thematic explorations surfacing anew every few years in either monographs or edited volumes. Reference to feminist literary criticism as an analytical framework, however, is still a fairly recent development—that is, until Ronald Egan’s definitive work under review here on the most well-known female poet of the entire Chinese tradition, Li Qingzhao 李清照(1084-ca.1155). Not only is this 11-chapter, 422-page treatment of a single woman a first in English scholarship, Egan’s theoretical stance also marks a departure from earlier works that place their subject matters in a more native context. That alone makes The Burden of Female Talent a must read for all students of Chinese literature. Moreover, throughout the whole book Egan never allows theoretical discussion to overshadow his focused analyses of Li Qingzhao and the circumstances and challenges she faced as a woman writer, thus retaining the distinctive appeal of the book to the more traditional readership of Sinology. This is not to discount, however, Egan’s conversance with feminist criticism;in fact, his “substantial debt”(p.8) to it is very recognizable, since the underlying approaches are fully subsumable under much of the preoccupations and assumptions of feminist literary theory—and, consequently, susceptible to critiques of the theory in general.
