Emerging from the Horizon of History: Modern Chinese Women’s Literature, 1917–1949

This book systematically studies the literary output of female writers in contemporary China within the frame of literary theories of feminism. With tools from psychoanalysis, structuralism and deconstructionism, the two female authors, Meng and Dai, analyze 9 important female writers from 1919 to 1949, including Yin Lu, Xin Bing, Ning Ding, Ailing Zhang. By decade, the authors provide a comprehensive depiction of these female writers' historic-cultural background as well as their reception by critics and audiences. Navigating the complex relation between mainstream literary trends and female writers’ practice, this text represents a landmark of practice of literary feminist criticism within the Chinese language.