Anna Lewis

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Zhang, Jing

Keywords

Xue Tao, Tang Poetry, Chinese Literature

Area of Concentration

Chinese Language and Culture

Abstract

This thesis studies the work of Xue Tao (768-831), a woman poet of Tang China (618-907). By the time Xue Tao began writing a rich Chinese poetic tradition already existed, as well as a long standing convention of using gendered personas within certain genres. In her poetry, Xue Tao plays with these conventions, manipulating traditional representations of gendered voice and creating from them an original, distinct voice. An example can be seen in her blending of the voices of two well established poetic stereotypes "the lonely woman" and "the banished scholar" in her Banishment Poetry. She further explores the use of gendered voice by transgressing the customarily allotted roles of the female voice within the poetic tradition, and expanding it to new genres and modes, as is seen in her poems "On the Ninth Day Festival, Encountering Rain" and "Account of Hushi Mountain". In addition to her confluence of gender binaries, in her poetry Xue Tao uses, or intentionally misuses, tropes and stock images in new and novel ways. These elements of innovation, paired with the incredibly versatile voice found in Xue Tao's poetry, contribute to Xue Tao's success in creating a poetic voice of her own.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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