Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance Essays on the Shishuo xinyu

Jack W. Chen, "Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance: Essays on the Shishuo xinyu "
English | ISBN: 0674251172 | 2021 | 300 pages | PDF | 9 MB
Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance is a study of the Shishuo xinyu, the most important anecdotal collection of medieval China―and arguably of the entire traditional era. In a set of interconnected essays, Jack W. Chen offers new readings of the Shishuo xinyu that draw upon social network analysis, performance studies, theories of ritual and mourning, and concepts of gossip and reputation to illuminate how the anecdotes of the collection imagine and represent a political and cultural elite. Whereas most accounts of the