Heroines of the everlasting tales: A comparative study

Dongmei Xu, Purdue University

Abstract

In both Old English and Classical Chinese poetry, the so-called wed-for-peace princess and the peace-weaver, terms that are drawn from the historical practice of cementing peaceful relationship through marriages, have been commonly taken as epithets for a certain group of women which enforce the uniformly tragic image of such women and have formed the basis for their perception as passive and peripheral figures. This project compares the representations of women in such situations in the two literary contexts, and argues that the tragic coloring of peace marriage women, which in both is grounded in the prejudice against women’s traditional role-playing in the society, underplays the importance of their individuality and agency.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Hughes, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Asian literature|British and Irish literature

COinS