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2018/2019 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar

「壓抑」與「淨化」：明清通俗小說中淫婦故事的結局模式
Repression and Purification: The Modes of Endings of the Stories of Wanton Women in Ming-Qing Fiction

胡子伊 Miss Hu Ziyi

March 1, 2019 (Friday); 5:30-6:45pm
Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Language: Putonghua

淫婦故事是明清通俗小說的重要題材。從《水滸傳》到《紅樓夢》，明清通俗小說中的淫婦故事群不斷豐富，發展出多種結局模式與相應的情感傾向。血腥斬殺、因果報應等結局模式在此類故事中佔據醒目地位，壓抑著具有危險力量的「淫婦」。同時，一些淫婦故事的結局亦存在淨化淫婦人物的潛力：少數「淫婦」通過自盡結局實現了由「淫」向「貞」的轉化；部分淫婦故事的美滿結局設置則弱化了其負面特徵，激發讀者的寬容心態。本次報告將重點考察十六到十八世紀的中國通俗小說文本，從淫婦故事的經典結局模式入手，分析實現「壓抑」與「淨化」效果的不同方式，以期進一步呈現男性小說家書寫淫婦人物的複雜心態、理解「淫婦」人物類型的建構性與反叛性，挖掘其背後的性別話語和社會文化內涵。

The story of wanton women is an important subject of Ming-Qing fiction. From Water Margin to A Dream of Red Mansions, it grew abundant from the sixteenth to eighteenth century China, developing a variety of ending patterns and emotional tendencies. The pattern of miserable endings such as graphic killing and karmic consequences occupies a prominent position, suppressing the dangerous wanton women. At the same time, some endings also show the potential of purification of the wanton women characters: a few wanton women transformed from “lascivious” to “chaste” through suicide; the unpunished or happy endings in some cases weakened the negative characteristics of the adulteress, provoking readers’ tolerance. This talk examines these patterns in light of their narrative effects of “repression” or “purification”, thus to reveal the complex attitudes of male novelists towards wanton women characters, understand their constructive and rebellious nature, and finally explore the socio-cultural connotations and gender discourse behind it.

ALL ARE WELCOME!