Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (3): 190-200.

• Classical Literary Theory and Criticism • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dream of the Red Chamber Internet Fan Fiction and Literary Canonicity

Carlos Rojas   

  1. Duke University
  • Online:2016-05-25 Published:2017-09-29
  • About author:Carlos Rojas teaches Chinese cultural studies at Duke University. His research focuses on issues of gender and visuality, corporeality and infection, and nationalism and diaspora. His publications include The Naked Gaze: Reflections on Chinese Modernity (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008), The Great Wall: A Cultural History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010) and Homesickness: Culture, Contagion, and National Transformation in Modern China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015).

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Abstract: This article considers the contemporary genre of Internet fan fiction inspired by Dream of the Red Chamber, which is to say Chinese novels published over the Internet that take the plot of Dream of the Red Chamber as their starting point. Through a close textual analysis of thematics of incestuous desire, reproduction, and vestigial remains in two works of Dream of the Red Chamber fan fiction, he argues that these contemporary novels comment allegorically not only on their own relationship to Dream of the Red Chamber itself, but also on more abstract processes of literary production and canon formation.

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