Crossing generic boundaries: A new look at traditional Chinese literature
Traditional Chinese literature was one of the longest literary traditions in the world. It evolved over two millennia through both established conventions and creative innovations—especially when authors, compilers, and illustrators navigated and broke generic constraints.
A new volume edited by Professor Manling Luo, Cross-Generic Perspectives on Traditional Chinese Literature (Brill, 2025), explores this idea through nine case studies spanning from the 10th to the 20th century. The book introduces cross-genre analysis as a way to interpret and understand how Chinese literature developed and how different types of texts relate to one another.
To illustrate this approach, the book’s contributors examine a wide range of materials in addition to the better-known poetry, drama, and fiction—including official histories, anecdote collections, gazetteers, medical handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, fortune-telling manuals, commentaries, and book illustrations. These examples show the complex connections among diverse kinds of textual productions.
The book also explores theoretical issues such as cultural memory, gender, sexuality, visuality, theatricality, and regional identity. By looking at how genres intersect, the contributors offer new insights into what counts as ‘literature’ and how these texts connect to broader cultural and intellectual conversations—both within and beyond Chinese studies.
Luo is the Paul McNutt Associate Professor in the Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. The work draws on her research interests, which include pre-modern Chinese narratives, Chinese literati culture, traditional Chinese literature, and gender and cultural studies.
Students interested in these topics are encouraged to read the book, or enroll in Luo’s spring courses, including Literary Chinese II or Voices from the Inner Chamber: Writing Women of Traditional China.
To see more books by Hamilton Lugar School faculty, visit the Hamilton Lugar Faculty Book Publications page.