Queering Gender, Sexuality, and Becoming-Human in Qing Dynasty Zhiguai

This book offers queer readings of Chinese Qing Dynasty zhiguai, 'strange tales', a genre of literature featuring supernatural characters and events. In a unique approach interweaving consideration of Chinese indigenous philosophies alongside critical theories, this book explores tales which speak to contemporary debates around sexuality, gender, anthropocentrism, identity, and power. Depiction of blurred boundaries between humans and animals, transformations between genders, diverse sexualities, and contextually unusual masculinities and femininities, these features lend such tales to queer readings. Unlike previous scholarship focusing on characters as allegorical figures and stories as morality tales, this book draws on queer theory, animal studies, feminism, and Deleuzian philosophy, to explore portrayal of the 'strange' and its potential for social critique. Examining such tales further enriches the scope of historic queer world literature, and offers culturally situated stories of relationships, desires, and ways of being, that both speak to and challenge contemporary debates.