Reframing the Boundaries of Household and Text in Hou Honglou Meng

Hou honglou meng (1796) (Later dream of the red chamber) is the earliest sequel to Cao Xueqin’s Honglou meng (Dream of the red chamber). It does more than redeem the romantic tragedy of the parent novel: it also intervenes to strengthen the dissolving Jia household and family structure and offers a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Late imperial China 2015-06, Vol.36 (1), p.53-87
Main Author: Moyer, Jessica Dvorak
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundaries
Business
Households
Marriage
Novels
Remakes & sequels
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hou honglou meng (1796) (Later dream of the red chamber) is the earliest sequel to Cao Xueqin’s Honglou meng (Dream of the red chamber). It does more than redeem the romantic tragedy of the parent novel: it also intervenes to strengthen the dissolving Jia household and family structure and offers a conscious act of literary critique on the novel. Hou honglou meng deliberately intervenes in the parent novel's metafictionality, reconstructs the Jia mansion and redraws its boundaries, and rewrites its family dynamics with a new balance of emotion (qing) and ritual (li). In the process it offers new visions of the wealthy household, of romance and marriage, of the domestic novel as a genre, and of the relationship between text, author(s), readers, and critics.
ISSN:0884-3236
1086-3257
1086-3257
DOI:10.1353/late.2015.0002