Women's Writing in Premodern China

This course offers an introduction to writing by and about women in China from the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) to the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). We will read both literary and historical sources to understand the development of representations of women as subjects in the early period, but the focus of the semester's readings will be on the innovations of women as writers from the Song through the Qing.