Date:
Monday, February 5, 2007.
12:00 PM.<BR/>
Location: Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall, 3rd Floor<BR/><BR/>
<p><font size="h3"><i>CEAS China Brown Bag</font></i>
<p><font color="8B0000" size="h4"> Ronald Egan, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara</font>
<p>Acclaimed in her day and ever after, Li Qingzhao is often considered the greatest woman poet in the Chinese tradition. Amid the acclaim, however, there has always been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with some of the works she wrote and with certain aspects of her conduct. Displeasure over her remarriage late in life, after she was widowed, developed in Ming and Qing times into a highly contentious debate, still with us today, over whether or not Song period sources that report that remarriage are credible. Yet her remarriage is not the only aspect of Li Qingzhao's life that has had to be recast to fit her iconic image as outstanding woman poet. Her writings have often been subjected to interpretations that spring from an impulse to reconcile the apparent contradiction she presents as a highly original and outspoken writer who happens to be female. Starting with the remarriage controversy, this talk examines the ways "Li Qingzhao" has been constructed to deal with that contradiction..</p><BR/>
Monday, February 5, 2007.
12:00 PM.<BR/>
Location: Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall, 3rd Floor<BR/><BR/>
<p><font size="h3"><i>CEAS China Brown Bag</font></i>
<p><font color="8B0000" size="h4"> Ronald Egan, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara</font>
<p>Acclaimed in her day and ever after, Li Qingzhao is often considered the greatest woman poet in the Chinese tradition. Amid the acclaim, however, there has always been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with some of the works she wrote and with certain aspects of her conduct. Displeasure over her remarriage late in life, after she was widowed, developed in Ming and Qing times into a highly contentious debate, still with us today, over whether or not Song period sources that report that remarriage are credible. Yet her remarriage is not the only aspect of Li Qingzhao's life that has had to be recast to fit her iconic image as outstanding woman poet. Her writings have often been subjected to interpretations that spring from an impulse to reconcile the apparent contradiction she presents as a highly original and outspoken writer who happens to be female. Starting with the remarriage controversy, this talk examines the ways "Li Qingzhao" has been constructed to deal with that contradiction..</p><BR/>