Love for a Laugh: The Comic in Romantic Chuanqi Plays of the 17th and 18th Centuries

Download or read book Love for a Laugh: The Comic in Romantic Chuanqi Plays of the 17th and 18th Centuries written by Yanbing Tan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-05-25 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the strikingly beautiful Peony Pavilion, how could one write about love and the ideal of emotional authenticity (qing) in the chuanqi genre? This book presents a group of creative dramatists who confronted this challenge by giving the romantic theme of chuanqi their unique comic twists. This book demonstrates how their comic articulations bring the qing ideal down to the mundane world of family obligations, political ambitions, commercial interests, and gender frustrations. By highlighting the crucial but understudied role that the comic plays, this book enriches our understanding of the intellectual depth and critical scope of the chuanqi genre.