Ideal and Actual in the Story of the Stone

by Levy, Dore J.

• ISBN13: 9780231114073
• ISBN10: 0231114079
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

The Story of the Stone(also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber), completed in the mid-eighteenth century by Cao Xuegin, is considered China's greatest novel -- but its length and narrative complexity have proven daunting to many modern readers. Now, esteemed scholar of Asian literature Dore J. Levy introduces this timeless work to first-time readers, while also presenting a new method of comparative interpretation for advanced students and scholars. Drawing from literary theory, sociology, religion, and medicine, Levy explores how the classic novel confronts the chasm between social, emotional, and spiritual ideals and their translation into day-to-day reality. This illuminating work unpacks The Story of the Stonebased on the interpretation of four major themes: the inversion of traditional family dynamics, which constitutes the novel's social framework; the function of illness and medicine in a society where Buddhist notions of karma and retribution exist alongside pragmatic notions of the human body that make up traditional Chinese medicine; the role of poetry in the social structure of dynastic Chinese society; and the use of poetry as a vehicle for spiritual liberation

Author Biography

Dore J. Levy is professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies and chair of East Asian Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. IX
Introduction	p. I
Ideal and Actual, Real and Not-Real	p. 7
"Family Togetherness": Patterns of Authority and the Subversion of Family Structure	p. 27
Preexisting Conditions: Retributory Illness and the Limits of Medicine	p. 67
A World Arart: Poetry and Society in the Garden of Total Vision	p. 103
The Chiming of the Void: Poetry as a Vehicle to Enlightenment	p. 139
Notes	p. 157
Glossary	p. 183
Bibliography	p. 191
Index	p. 207
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