Discourse formation in Tang tales: Literati identity construction and the writing of Chuanqi (China)

This dissertation focuses on chuanqi tales, or classical tales of the marvelous written in the Tang (618-907), which are generally believed to constitute a crucial stage in the evolution of Chinese fiction. Investigating the authors' sophisticated strategies of structuring their stories, such as their conscious manipulation of genre conventions and their productive use of female sexuality as the object of moral containment and romantic fantasy, I demonstrate the ways contemporary men of letters took advantage of the emerging chuanqi storytelling to identify, imagine, and perpetuate themselves as a cultural elite. Detailed analyses of the recurrent themes, including moral spectacles, love affairs, the fall of Emperor Xuanzong's reign, and dream adventures, shed light on the formative undercurrents of literati discourses on morality, romance, cultural memory, and self-reflection.; The Introduction establishes a genealogy of the term chuanqi , discusses the textual variants of these stories and positions them in the context of storytelling circles and the literati community at large. Chapter One looks at stories about moral exemplars to see how the authors rewrite conventional themes in official histories into moral spectacles and how the rewriting serves to construct their moral authority. Chapter Two and Chapter Three examine stories on literati men's romantic adventures to demonstrate the authors' strategies for establishing literati romantic identity and for enacting its social acceptance despite its controversial nature. Chapter Four centers on tales on Emperor Xuanzong's life. These stories not only play a crucial role in shaping the cultural memory of the Emperor, but also enable the authors to define their historical subjectivity. Chapter Five looks into stories on dream experiences of officialdom to show the writers' ontological reflections on the socially endorsed path of life and their careful construction of philosophical transcendent positions.; My study of chuanqi tales demonstrates that the stories are not merely entertainments, but constitute a vital liminal space for literati men to construct images of themselves by which they want to be seen and remembered. These identities are both individual and communal, which helps to explain the canonization of these chuanqi tales by men of letters across time.