Female Characters in Ye Guangqin’s Unfettered Wharf

Abstract

Ye Guangqin is an illustrious, prolific Manchu writer born in Beijing, whose chefs-d’oeuvre are exemplified by fiction concerning Beijing denizens from both ends of the social spectrum, especially those from upper-class Manchu Banner families. By virtue of Ye’s profound construal of history and Manchurian culture, her writing pertaining to war and families has attained acclamation and been adapted into visual works. In this research, I explore a 2007 narrative entitled Unfettered Wharf depicting a Manchu father and his son residing in early modern Beijing, which is enriched by a cornucopia of historical and modern allusions as well as Beijing Opera elements. Notwithstanding critical attention to the male protagonists, female characters are largely overlooked yet deserve more scrutiny, in that they play a preponderant role in this thought-provoking novel and manifest laudable, rare merits. Ye Guangqin, Pekin'de doğmuş ünlü, üretken bir Mançu yazarıdır ve başyapıtları sosyal yelpazenin her iki ucundaki Pekin sakinleriyle, özellikle de üst sınıf Mançu Banner ailelerinden gelenlerle ilgili kurgularla örneklenmektedir. Ye'nin derin tarih ve Mançurya kültürü yorumlayışı sayesinde savaş ve ailelerle ilgili yazıları beğeni topladı ve görsel çalışmalara uyarlandı. Bu araştırmada, erken modern dönem Pekin'inde ikamet eden Mançu bir baba ve oğlunu tasvir eden, tarihi ve modern göndermelerin yanı sıra Pekin Operası unsurlarıyla zenginleştirilmiş, 2007 tarihli Sınırsız Rıhtım başlıklı bir anlatıyı araştırıyorum. Erkek kahramanlara gösterilen eleştirel ilgiye rağmen, kadın karakterler büyük ölçüde göz ardı ediliyor ancak daha fazla incelemeyi hak ediyorlar; çünkü bu düşündürücü romanda baskın bir rol oynuyorlar ve övgüye değer, nadir değerler sergiliyorlar.

Keywords

• Manchu literature
• historical and modern allusions
• tolerance
• optimism
• humour
• oppressed feminism

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