Li Ang's Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics

Edited by Yenna Wu - Contributions by Fang-yu Li; Ping-hui Liao; Chia-lin Pao Tao; Murray A. Rubinstein; Aubrey Tang and Yenna Wu

Li Ang (1952–) is a famous and prolific feminist writer from Taiwan who challenges and subverts sociocultural traditions through her daring explorations of sex, violence, women’s bodies and desire, and national politics. As a taboo-breaking writer and social critic, she uses fiction to expose injustice and represent human nature. Her political engagement further affords her a visionary perspective for interrogating the problematic intersection of gender and politics. The ambivalence in her fictional representations invites controversies and debates. Her works have thus helped raise awareness of the problems, open up discussions, and bring about social and intellectual changes. Some of her works have been translated into such foreign languages as English, French, German, and Japanese. In her career spanning over forty years, she has won numerous literary awards.

Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics is the first collection of critical essays in English on Li Ang and some of her most celebrated works. Contributing historians examine her vital roles in the Taiwanese women’s movement and political arenas, as well as the social influence of her publications on extramarital affairs. Contributing literary scholars investigate the feminist controversy over her 1983 award-winning novel, Shafu (Killing the Husband; translated as The Butcher’s Wife); offer alternative interpretative strategies such as looking into figurations of “biopower” and relationship dynamics; dissect the subtle political significance in her magnificent novel Miyuan (The labyrinthine garden; 1991) and explosive political fiction, Beigang xianglu renren cha (Everyone sticks incense into the Beigang censer; 1997) from the perspective of gender and national identity; scrutinize the multiple discursive levels in her superb novel Qishi yinyuan zhi Taiwan/Zhongguo qingren (Seven prelives of affective affinity: Taiwan/China lovers;2009); and analyze the “(dis)embodied subversion” accomplished by her fantastic Kandejian de gui (Visible ghosts; 2004).

As the first volume in English to examine Li Ang’s trail-blazing discourse on gender, sex, and politics, this work will inspire more studies of her oeuvre and contribute usefully to the fields of modern Taiwanese and Chinese literature, feminist studies, and comparative literature.

Lexington Books

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-0-7391-7794-5 • Hardback • December 2013 • $120.00 • (£92.00)

978-0-7391-7795-2 • eBook • December 2013 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Feminist, Literary Criticism / Asian / General, Literary Criticism / Women Authors

Li Ang's Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Li Ang (1952–) is a famous and prolific feminist writer from Taiwan who challenges and subverts sociocultural traditions through her daring explorations of sex, violence, women’s bodies and desire, and national politics. As a taboo-breaking writer and social critic, she uses fiction to expose injustice and represent human nature. Her political engagement further affords her a visionary perspective for interrogating the problematic intersection of gender and politics. The ambivalence in her fictional representations invites controversies and debates. Her works have thus helped raise awareness of the problems, open up discussions, and bring about social and intellectual changes. Some of her works have been translated into such foreign languages as English, French, German, and Japanese. In her career spanning over forty years, she has won numerous literary awards.

Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics is the first collection of critical essays in English on Li Ang and some of her most celebrated works. Contributing historians examine her vital roles in the Taiwanese women’s movement and political arenas, as well as the social influence of her publications on extramarital affairs. Contributing literary scholars investigate the feminist controversy over her 1983 award-winning novel, Shafu (Killing the Husband; translated as The Butcher’s Wife); offer alternative interpretative strategies such as looking into figurations of “biopower” and relationship dynamics; dissect the subtle political significance in her magnificent novel Miyuan (The labyrinthine garden; 1991) and explosive political fiction, Beigang xianglu renren cha (Everyone sticks incense into the Beigang censer; 1997) from the perspective of gender and national identity; scrutinize the multiple discursive levels in her superb novel Qishi yinyuan zhi Taiwan/Zhongguo qingren (Seven prelives of affective affinity: Taiwan/China lovers;2009); and analyze the “(dis)embodied subversion” accomplished by her fantastic Kandejian de gui (Visible ghosts; 2004).

As the first volume in English to examine Li Ang’s trail-blazing discourse on gender, sex, and politics, this work will inspire more studies of her oeuvre and contribute usefully to the fields of modern Taiwanese and Chinese literature, feminist studies, and comparative literature.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-0-7391-7794-5 • Hardback • December 2013 • $120.00 • (£92.00)

978-0-7391-7795-2 • eBook • December 2013 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Feminist, Literary Criticism / Asian / General, Literary Criticism / Women Authors

Author

Yenna Wu is distinguished teaching professor and director of the Asian Languages and Civilizations Program at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. In the Vanguard: Li Ang’s Discourse on Gender and Politics
Yenna Wu
2. Li Ang as the Socio-Feminist Conscience of Taiwanese: Local Identity, Women’s Liberation, Political Activism, and Cross-Strait Outreach as an Author’s Venues and Causes
Murray A. Rubinstein
3. Li Ang on Extramarital Affairs
Chia-lin Pao Tao
4. Between Insight and “Inattentional Blindness”: Feminist Controversy over Li Ang’s Shafu
Yenna Wu
5. Figurations of “Biopower” and Relationship Dynamics in Li Ang’s Shafu
Yenna Wu
6. Make It Till You Fake It: The Four-claw Dragons in The Labyrinthine Garden
Aubrey Tang
7. Women, Politics, and National Identity: Revisiting Li Ang’s All Sticks are Welcome in the Censer of Beigang
Fang-yu Li
8. Romancing the Strait: Love and Death in Li Ang’s Seven Prelives of Affective Affinity
Ping-hui Liao
9. (Dis)embodied Subversion: The Mountain-pass Ghost in Li Ang's Visible Ghosts (Kandejian de gui)
Yenna Wu
Index
About the Contributors

Reviews

The collection of essays edited by Yenna Wu is a valuable contribution to the study of one of Taiwan’s most significant woman writers, Li Ang. Just as multi-faceted as Li’s corpus itself, the essays in this book critically examine her works from the perspectives of history, sociology, gender politics, and postcolonial studies. . . .The essays gathered in Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics present compelling arguments about the way Li’s works probe into issues of history, politics, gender, class, sexuality, and nationhood in Taiwan.
— Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

This book gathers together nine thought-provoking chapters regarding Li Ang’s nuanced critique of female sexuality and Taiwan’s politics.... The editor and contributors of the book should be applauded for their great contribution to Chinese studies and beyond. To conclude, Li Ang’s Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics is a scholarly volume that appeals to a wide readership and especially to those who share the diverse agendas and interests of Li Ang herself.
— ASIANetwork Exchange

To get a deeper sense of Li Ang's mind and her personality, this book will be a useful resource. It feels like these authors have ducked into Li Ang's mind and heart and dissected her work. . . .This edited book about Li Ang and her writings can be both entertaining and educational.
— American Journal of Chinese Studies

Yenna Wu's new book offers multifaceted perspectives on Li Ang, an intellectual rebel and creative writer of global importance whose fiction laid important groundwork for Taiwanese feminist, psychological, and political inquiry that continues today. This essay collection showcases the continuing vitality of Taiwanese fiction and the literary and ideological criticism it has inspired.
— Jeffrey C. Kinkley, St. John's University