Description: Ariel Fox's The Cornucopian Stage examines a body of influential yet understudied early modern Chinese plays by a circle of Suzhou playwrights. These plays about long-distance traders and small-time peddlers, impossible bargains and broken contracts, place commercial forms not only at center stage but at the center of a new world coming into being.
Brief description: Ariel Fox is Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Chicago.
Review Quotes: Erudite yet supremely readable...Fox has uncovered a veritable treasure trove of plays...the author's excavation of this hitherto largely neglected corpus, carefully situated in its complicated historical, cultural, and economic contexts, has greatly enriched our understanding of the early modern world.--Maria Franca Sibau "CHINOPERL" (12/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)