"It would be difficult to overestimate the value of this landmark work for the study of writings by, for, and about women in late imperial China in particular, and for the period's cultural history in general. All the papers are pathbreaking, and the discussions of such important topics as the woman writer, race and ethnicity, class, courtesans, gentrywomen, the feminine voice, and subjectivity will stimulate further exploration."—Shuen-fu Lin, University of Michigan

• Contributors Introduction Ellen Widmer Part I. Writing the Courtesan: 1. Ambiguous images of courtesan culture in late imperial China Paul S. Ropp 2. The late Ming courtesan: invention of a cultural ideal Wai-yee Li 3. The written word and the bound foot: a history of the courtesan's aura Dorothy Ko 4. Desire and writing in the late Ming play Parrot Island Katherine Carlitz 5. Women in Feng Menglong's Mountain Songs Yasushi Oki Part II: Norms and Selves 6. Ming and Qing anthologies of women's poetry and their selection strategies Kang-i Sun Chang 7. Changing the subject: gender and self-inscription in authors' preafaces and Shi poetry Maureen Robertson Part III. Poems in Context: 8. Writing her way out of trouble: Li Yuying in history and fiction Ann Waltner 9. Embodying the disembodied: prepresentaions of ghosts and the feminine Judith T. Zeitlin 10. De/constructing a feminine ideal in the eighteenth century: random records of West-Green and the story of Shuangqing Grace S. Fong Part IV. 'Hong lou meng': 11. Womens writing before and within the Hong lou meng Huan Saussy 12. Beyong stereotypes: the twelve beauties in Qing court art and the Dream of the Red Chamber Wu Hung 13. Ming Loyalism and the women's voice in fiction after Hong lou meng Ellen Widmer Postface: Chinese women in a comparative perspective: a response Nancy Armstrong Reference matter Notes Works cited Character list Index.

"It would be difficult to overestimate the value of this landmark work for the study of writings by, for, and about women in late imperial China in particular, and for the period's cultural history in general. All the papers are pathbreaking, and the discussions of such important topics as the woman writer, race and ethnicity, class, courtesans, gentrywomen, the feminine voice, and subjectivity will stimulate further exploration."—Shuen-fu Lin, University of Michigan

• Contributors Introduction Ellen Widmer Part I. Writing the Courtesan: 1. Ambiguous images of courtesan culture in late imperial China Paul S. Ropp 2. The late Ming courtesan: invention of a cultural ideal Wai-yee Li 3. The written word and the bound foot: a history of the courtesan's aura Dorothy Ko 4. Desire and writing in the late Ming play Parrot Island Katherine Carlitz 5. Women in Feng Menglong's Mountain Songs Yasushi Oki Part II: Norms and Selves 6. Ming and Qing anthologies of women's poetry and their selection strategies Kang-i Sun Chang 7. Changing the subject: gender and self-inscription in authors' preafaces and Shi poetry Maureen Robertson Part III. Poems in Context: 8. Writing her way out of trouble: Li Yuying in history and fiction Ann Waltner 9. Embodying the disembodied: prepresentaions of ghosts and the feminine Judith T. Zeitlin 10. De/constructing a feminine ideal in the eighteenth century: random records of West-Green and the story of Shuangqing Grace S. Fong Part IV. 'Hong lou meng': 11. Womens writing before and within the Hong lou meng Huan Saussy 12. Beyong stereotypes: the twelve beauties in Qing court art and the Dream of the Red Chamber Wu Hung 13. Ming Loyalism and the women's voice in fiction after Hong lou meng Ellen Widmer Postface: Chinese women in a comparative perspective: a response Nancy Armstrong Reference matter Notes Works cited Character list Index.