This Fearful Object of Desire
On the Interpretation of a Bad Dream in Wang Shifu’s Story of the Western WingGlossary
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19067161 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rainier Lanselle (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Pages | 205-238 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0754-5010 • E-ISSN: 2108-7105 |
| Publisher | OpenEdition (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4000/extremeorient.1150 |
| OpenAlex | W2919566523 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
Zhang Sheng’s dream at the end of the fourth book of the celebrated zaju of the Yuan period—The Story of the Western Wing (Xixiang ji) by Wang Shifu—has attracted little attention. Yet it is of central importance as it involves essential information concerning the relationship between the two main characters of the story and their contradictions. This is highly consequential, as the Xixiang ji features at the core of the Chinese imaginary of love during the whole premodern period. This particular dream scene inherits from a long lineage of textual tradition, and in turn has had a lasting influence on other texts. The interpretation of this dream by Jin Shengtan, which we can infer through his own edition of the play in the 17th century, is highly compatible with a modern approach, as could be drawn from Jacques Lacan’s theory of desire, the subject, and the Other
Aesthetics · Art · China · Dream · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · The Imaginary · Zhàng · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Chinese history and philosophy · Computer Science · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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Beyond the Words
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |