Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Zhang, Jing
Second Advisor
Young, Jessica
Area of Concentration
English and Chinese Language and Culture
Abstract
The Tang dynasty tale, “The Merchant’s Wife” (“Guren qi” 贾人妻) by Xue Yongruo 薛用弱, and its Qing dynasty rewrite, “A Female Knight-Errant” (“Xianü” 侠女) by Pu Songling 蒲松龄 represent interesting depictions of a nüxia within the zhiguai xiaoshuo tradition that show her journey from an empowered character with agency to a flatly powerful character without said agency. In order to argue this conclusive analysis between the two iterations, I first define the concepts of power, empowerment, and agency within the historical, cultural, and literary contexts of each iteration. Though both women exhibit power, they are not both able to access agency which I define in these contexts as the ability to know/have individual, personal desires and then act on them. Through this analysis, my thesis concludes that where “The Merchant’s Wife” highlights the character’s agency in the motivations and subsequent actions that frame her revenge, the narrative changes of these elements in “A Lady Knight-Errant” remove her internal motivations and therefore her agency.
Recommended Citation
Lucas, Cynthia, "FROM NÜXIA TO XIANÜ: FEMALE AGENCY IN CLASSICAL CHINESE ZHIGUAI XIAOSHUO" (2024). Theses & ETDs. 6562.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6562