The ‘Self’s’ Dilemma: Illness and Autobiographical Desire in the Poetry Collection of a Qing-Dynasty Woman Poet

Abstract

本文旨在選取一個特定角度一疾病一探討出版於清咸豐年間的一部閨秀詩集〈《信芳閣詩草》，1851年、1859年兩版〉所呈現的強烈自傳欲望。通過在其詩集中不斷呈現疾病並賦予其特定意義，閨秀詩人陳蘊蓮〈清遒光、咸豐年間人）力圖向讀者傳達一個具有顯著情節的人生故事’以使整部詩集形成自傳效果；並藉此質疑「自我」在婚姻關係中的定位，尋求乃至迫使讀者對其個人生活困境作出反應。陳明顯跨越了「溫柔敦厚」界限的直露質問，對詩歌傳统的微妙改寫以使其服從於個人寫作目的，對讀者反應的有意識操控以及其高度的寫作自覺性均宣示其「自我」不容忽略的存在。這一自我宣示的方式或可透露，在西方影響和「現代性」大規模來臨之前，女性關注自我與性別關係的方式似已悄然發生著微妙卻重要的變化。

In this study, I examine the recurrent theme of illness in the poetry collection of a Qing-Dynasty woman poet—Poetry Drafts from the Xinfang Pavilion (1851, 1859), by Chen Yunlian (around the Daoguaug and Xianfeng Reigns)—in order to probe into her creation of a very assertive 'self.' In particular, I focus on Chen's overwhelming autobiographical desire and the ways she willfully turned the construction of a life story about illness and suffering towards the end of publicizing the dilemma she was facing in her marriage. I argue that the concern Chen revealed about the position of her 'self” within her marital and familial relations was in a way unprecedented. Indeed, this 'self” gained so much emphasis that she eclipsed the very relations by which she was defined. I also argue that Chen's case might serve as an inkling of change that was happening in women's self-perceptions at this particular historical moment and that foreshadowed the rise of the 'New Woman' decades later.