Journal articles on the topic 'Concubinage in literature'

Colonial concubinage in Ethiopia during the Italian occupation (1936–1941) has not been deeply studied yet. This article explores the peculiarities of the so-called madamato – that was banned under Fascism in 1937 but developed despite the racist legislation – by firstly comparing its practices in Ethiopia with that which took place from the late Nineteenth century in Eritrea. Indeed, on the Eritrean case a small body of significant literature already exists. In addition, by relying on both written and oral sources, this article highlights the relevance of local agency, the influence of “traditional” customs and religion, and the role played by Ethiopian women in the impact of and the shape taken by colonial concubinage in Ethiopia. It also points out some continuity between the colonial and post-colonial periods (in terms of social behaviors) and the complex roles played in local societies by Ethiopian-Italians and Eritrean-Italians (including the offspring of relationships based on concubinage). Furthermore, this article highlights that gender relations in the region during Italian rule were also affected by the fact that Italian colonialism in the Horn of Africa influenced to some extent the construction of Italian national identity and self-representation.

This research discusses on the lives of the people of West Java, especially women who make the practice of concubinage as a livelihood to meet the economic needsof the family. The method used in this research is the historical method with the literature study technique by searching the source of literature. By the highnumber of native women who became Nyai in West Java, the problem of this research is about the lives of native women when became Nyai to Europeanpeople. The urgent needs of economy make the women to earn living by working on the farm or became Nyai to European people. There are two kinds ofconcubinage performed, they are official relationship and unofficial relationship. Concubinage official relationship is a relationship legalized in marriage andlegally registered in the Dutch government. However, if the relationship is unofficial, then the marriage is conducted without lawful ties and the absence oflaw protecting the native women. This has a devastating impact that is the spread of venereal disease among Europeans and Natives.

This study aims to describe masculinity in literature and religion of China. The focus of this study are (1) how is the representation of masculinity in literature and religion in China, (2) how is the representation of the other side of masculinity literature and religion in China, and (3) how is masculinity literature and religion in relation to the relevance of social life in China nowaday. The theory used in this study is masculinity. This study used a qualitative descriptive method-style narrative and autoethnography exposure. Source of data used in the form of (1) literature study classical Chinese literature (Journey to the West, Story Classical Ming Dynasty, and The Plum in the Golden Vase or, CHIN P ‘ING MEI Volume 1: The Gathering) and (2) autoethnography. The results show that masculinity in literature and religion in China is very strong. Masculinity in literature and religion in China comes in the form of leadership, courage, and responsibility; (2) the other side of masculinity literature and religion in China, namely concubinage and dominance in leadership; and (3) the masculinity literature and religion in relation to the relevance of public life represented that China upholds masculinity that looked at the country’s leadership, the leadership of the household, and religious leadership.

The study of non-Muslims in Islamic societies has long been a robust subfield in the historiography of the medieval Middle East. But its literature has blind spots, a significant example of which concerns slavery as a constitutive institution of non-Muslim communities. Much recent scholarship on medieval non-Muslims has tended to privilege religious affiliation as an explanatory category of social experience, leaving other legal statuses and modes of identification—especially slavery—underanalyzed. This piece will survey this historiographical hole. It will then offer a brief analysis of some Abbasid-era Syriac Christian material in which slavery figures prominently, concubines and concubinage in particular. My goal is to provide an example of how attending to the place of slavery in non-Muslim communities facilitates a much-needed historiographical shift of focus from reified religious identities to the social practices, institutions, and hierarchies upon which those communities were built.

What we know of citizenship, marriage and political status in Athens in the fourth century suggests that they were matters of no little public concern governed by a body of law which left few, if any, significant loopholes or anomalies. The ‘descent group’ criterion for citizenship had triumphed over the possible alternatives. The fundament of the system was the Periklean law (or laws) of 451/0, re-enacted in 403/2, and prescribing double endogamy — that is, citizen birth through both parents — as the normal qualification for a citizen (astos). Whether this fifth-century legislation declared mixed marriages (astos with xene, xenos with aste) positively invalid or merely deterred them indirectly, through the disabilities falling upon the children, remains unclear. It is certain, however, that by the time [Demosthenes] 59 was delivered, in the 340s, both the parties to and the accessories in such marriages were breaking the law. ‘At that time an alien who joined the oikos of a citizen as husband or wife (the word synoikein implies a purported marriage, not mere concubinage) could be prosecuted by graphe and, if found guilty, was sold as a slave; the citizen man who thus received an alien woman into his oikos as his wife was fined 1000 drachmas. A man who, acting as her kyrios, gave an alien woman to a citizen for marriage could also be prosecuted by graphe, and if he was found guilty he was disfranchised and his property was confiscated’.

The problem of the relation between the female gender and Confucian humanism is far more complex than it seems to be on the first glance. Especially if we consider the many misogynistic phenomena we can encounter in the course of Chinese history, such as foot-binding or the concubinage, we might be inclined to think that female philosophy was impossible in traditional China. This paper aims to challenge the standard views on this problem. It aims to shed some light on the fact that in this context we have to differentiate between classical teachings that were relatively egalitarian in nature, and later ideologies that more or less openly promoted the inferior position of women in society. The paper will analyse the work of the female Han dynasty scholar Ban Zhao (45–117 CE), who was the first well-known female thinker in the history of Chinese philosophy. Through this analysis, the author also aims to expose the contradiction between dominant conventions on the one hand, and latent, often hidden criticism of gender relations in female writings of traditional China on the other. In this way, the paper aims to promote a more culturally sensitive approach to the historical and conceptual study of gender discourses in China by connecting textual analyses with actual and comprehensive knowledge of the historical and social contexts in which they were placed.

The problem of the relation between the female gender and Confucian humanism is far more complex than it seems to be on the first glance. Especially if we consider the many misogynistic phenomena we can encounter in the course of Chinese history, such as foot-binding or the concubinage, we might be inclined to think that female philosophy was impossible in traditional China. This paper aims to challenge the standard views on this problem. It aims to shed some light on the fact that in this context we have to differentiate between classical teachings that were relatively egalitarian in nature, and later ideologies that more or less openly promoted the inferior position of women in society. The paper will analyse the work of the female Han dynasty scholar Ban Zhao (45–117 CE), who was the first well-known female thinker in the history of Chinese philosophy. Through this analysis, the author also aims to expose the contradiction between dominant conventions on the one hand, and latent, often hidden criticism of gender relations in female writings of traditional China on the other. In this way, the paper aims to promote a more culturally sensitive approach to the historical and conceptual study of gender discourses in China by connecting textual analyses with actual and comprehensive knowledge of the historical and social contexts in which they were placed.

This study discusses the role of the concubine in selected traditional Malay literature, specifically Sulalatus Salatin , Hikayat Raja- raja Pasai and Hikayat Patani , as these three works highlight several episodes that involve concubines, compared to other historiographical literary works. The objective of this study is to focus on concubine characters, which are seldom given attention or considered insignificant even though they have left a definite impact in specific situations. The concubine character will be discussed in terms of her power and role in the palace of the olden days. The study will also apply the theory of power as propounded by Lukes (1977) in analysing the role and concept of the concubine as put forth by Ismail Azman (2009). The significance of this study is the focus on the concubine character, which has been overlooked in favour of other main characters such as the king, the queen and the high official, among others. The concubine character in fact has her own standing, to the extent of impacting a particular government or state. Keywords: Concubine, role and power, traditional Malay literature Abstrak Kajian ini membincangkan watak gundik dalam karya kesusasteraan Melayu tradisional terpilih dengan merujuk beberapa buah teks historiografi, iaitu Sulalatus Salatin , Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai dan Hikayat Patani , ketiga-tiga teks ini dipilih kerana lebih menonjolkan beberapa peristiwa yang melibatkan gundik berbanding teks-teks historiografi yang lain. Objektif kajian adalah untuk mengetengahkan watak yang jarang diberikan perhatian dan dianggap kecil tetapi mampu memberikan impak tertentu dalam keadaan tertentu. Watak gundik ini akan dibincangkan melalui aspek kekuasaan dan peranannya dalam istana silam. Kajian ini juga akan menggunakan teori kuasa yang dikemukakan oleh Lukes (1977) yang akan dianalisis dengan melihat peranan gundik serta konsep gundik yang dikemukakan oleh Ismail Azman (2009). Kesignifikanan kajian ini mempamerkan satu aspek, iaitu watak yang kadangkala kelihatan tidak penting daripada watak utama yang lain seperti raja, permaisuri, pembesar dan sebagainya. Watak gundik ini mempunyai kedudukan tersendiri dan juga mampu memainkan peranan penting sehingga memberikan kesan kepada sesuatu pemerintahan. Kata kunci: Gundik, peranan dan kekuasaan, sastera Melayu tradisional

Tamil literature is made up of four strands charity, meaning, pleasure and home. The most important of them is a pleasure. It is in this pleasure that the Illness Regulations are taught about the Code of Life for the Human Clan. There is much talk about the prevalence of one of the Ainthinai in the association literature, not just the message of the leader and the nest in the associated literature. Tamil literature does not lead many women to live, even though one's marriage to a single person. So, the goats lived a life of a married man and a daughter of the other, the lover, the slum, the concubine. News about whore is known for its abundance in the literature of Neethi Nool, Thirumanthiram, Ettuthogai, Silappathikaram, and Tholkappiyam.

In the novels The Concubine and The Great Ponds, Elechi Amadi, through the magical realist tradition, revisits the precolonial past of the Ikwerre (Nigeria) to showcase the cultural and intellectual sophistication of this society. As represented in Amadi’s writing, this was a well-structured society with its own credible social and cultural values that defined and explained their worldview, with nothing to envy in the West. In The Concubine, for example, the fates of the men (Emenike, Madume, and Ekwueme) who intend to marry Ihuoma can be explained naturally as well as supernaturally. In The Great Ponds, the novelist employs African mythology to critique the Western arrogance and egocentricity that plunged the world in the purposeless and wasteful war of 1914–18, as well as complicating character and meaning in this novel through the supernatural. Through the war over fishing rights in the Wagaba pond between Chiolu and Aliakoro, Amadi transposes some of the consequences of the First World War, such as the death and suffering that involved the Central and Allied Powers, into his narrative. Amadi’s magical realist fiction is a celebration of indigenous beliefs and culture, as well as a tool to explore character and history.

This article examines the function of dismemberment in four stories of female figures from ancient Near Eastern literature. Using the tools of feminist literary analysis, I explore the tales of Levite’s concubine (Judges 19), Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:30-37), Anat (KTU 1.3 ii; iii 1-2; 1.6 ii 28-37), and Isis (myth of Isis and Osiris). Comparison between the demise of the Levite’s concubine and Jezebel points to the shared significance of their dismemberment, despite the women’s vastly different societal positions. The discussion then focuses on two goddesses: Anat in Ugaritic narrative poetry and Isis in Egyptian mythology, showing their strength in scenes of dismemberment. Despite differences in divinity and power, all four women can be joined by their connection to dismemberment, whether as a victim, perpetrator, or restorer. This article reveals how dismemberment in these stories serves to strengthen androcentric hegemony while nonetheless challenging assumed gender stereotypes.

O presente artigo evidenciou a discussão entorno das omissões legislativas quanto aos direitos da(o) amante e a sua não participação ao direito de suceder, apresentou assim a constante evolução da entidade familiar e a influencia da cultura conservadora que impede o devido desenvolvimento normativo afim de amparar àqueles que constituem relação de concubinato. A pesquisa mostrou os conhecimentos jurisprudenciais e os princípios basilares atuais acolhidos pelo ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, onde se direcionou por intermédio do conhecimento doutrinário, evidenciou assim, os efeitos sucessórios provenientes das relações concubinárias. O projeto foi desenvolvido através de uma pesquisa bibliográfica com abordagem dedutiva, oportunizando a visão da literatura específica e aludindo as principais jurisprudências que cercam a temática. O trabalho oportunizou o conhecimento do conceito e da evolução histórica do concubinato no Brasil, certificou a incidência das famílias paralelas no ordenamento jurídico e o princípio monogâmico, e um parâmetro geral dos direitos que assistem aos concubinos extraídos das normas presentes no nosso ordenamento brasileiro. Assim, o presente trabalho vislumbra a importância da incidência legislativa no campo normativo que tange à criação de leis específicas, uma vez que os concubinos são pessoas detentoras de direitos e obrigações que em razão da relação constituída muitas vezes é privada de levantar patrimônio e de adquirir independência financeira. O presente trabalho, portanto, mostrou a realidade esmagadora vivenciada pelo (a) amante em conformidade com a evolução da entidade familiar.

A literatura especializada sobre família tem produzido, num leque variado de abordagens, um número significativo de estudos, incluindo a Demografia Histórica. Em Portugal, uma ampla documentação referente às visitas pastorais, de vários arcebispados, vem se constituindo numa fonte importantíssima de estudos, permitindo analisar e compreender fenômenos ligados ao casamento, aos nascimentos legítimos e ilegítimos, às questões de transferência de patrimônio Este trabalho tem como objetivo explorar diferentes fontes e cruzar as informações provenientes de registros paroquiais, rol de confessos, testamentos e fontes fiscais, visando analisar a nupcialidade e a reprodução social das famílias e dos indivíduos, verificando as condições em que ocorriam denúncias aos visitadores.

In this article, I discuss Richard Brome’s tragicomedy The Queen and Concubine (1635–1636), focusing on how the play reflects the iconography of Charles I as well as Stuart ideals of statecraft. I argue that the play’s representation of a royal ruler in a pastoral setting draws on Van Dyck’s portraiture and on Charles I’s masques, as well as on Lipsius’s political concept of ‘love’. I claim that the play promotes a ‘politics of happiness’ which affirms the Caroline ideology of royal rule. My reading of Brome’s play aims at furthering the critical understanding of the cultural and political concerns shared by court drama and drama written for the commercial theatre in the Caroline period.

Em diferentes zonas de contato nas sociedades escravistas da América e do Caribe, histórias sobre relações entre mulheres negras escravizadas e homens de origem europeia, geralmente seus senhores, foram mencionadas em relatos de viajantes e de missionários, na literatura e em documentos oficiais desde o século XVII, em geral escritos por homens brancos. As imagens construídas sobre as mulheres são frequentemente estereotipadas e suas experiências e atuações invisibilizadas por essas narrativas, o que fomentou a construção de uma imagem racializada e depreciativa sobre as mulheres negras do Caribe Francês, sobretudo a partir do discurso frequente que vinculou alforria e mestiçagem. Neste artigo, visando demonstrar as limitações e os estereótipos presentes nas fontes escritas por homens brancos, exponho resultados de minha pesquisa sobre a conquista da alforria na Martinica, em uma abordagem de história social, procurando demonstrar alguns indícios de experiências de mulheres negras escravizadas nas Antilhas Francesas e suas lutas por sua liberdade e de suas famílias. Desse modo, busco evidenciar a fragilidade do argumento o qual afirma que a mulher negra escravizada teve acesso a sua alforria e de seus filhos predominantemente por meio de suas relações afetivas (e desiguais) com os homens brancos.

O Therīgāthā é uma antologia de poemas escrito por mulheres sobre mulheres budistas, sendo o primeiro texto desta categoria no mundo. O eu-lírico destes poemas é a expressão da própria vivência, mulheres que eram mães, esposas, concubinas, prostitutas, viúvas... que transbordaram nos versos suas epifanias de despertar, mostrando o caminho trilhado, a razão da renúncia a vida em sociedade para se tornarem monjas budistas, celibatárias em busca do mais elevado fruto do caminho, a paz definitiva. A trajetória de investigação destes versos inicia-se com uma apresentação do texto, sobre quem eram as anciãs que representavam as vozes das primeiras monjas na literatura budista, segue-se a uma análise do eu-lírico na experiência feminina, posteriormente sobre a possibilidade de teopoética desta antologia em diálogo com o erotismo dos corpos na dissolução relativa com a sexualidade de Georges Bataille na obra: O Erotismo. Para que isso seja possível foi feita a investigação de alguns versos traduzidos do páli para o inglês, por Charles Hallisey e para as análises uma pesquisa bibliográfica. A interpretação dos versos é uma interpretação livre, mas que ilustram o que esta obra nos traz dentro das possibilidades interpretativas da teologia budista.

Abstract This article argues that in poem 4.3, Propertius depicts Arethusa not as a citizen wife, but as a concubine or an elegiac courtesan under exclusive contract to Lycotas. The Roman lexicon of marriage was frequently used to describe relationships other than iustum coniugium, especially in love elegy. That is the situation presented in Propertius 4.3. Arethusa’s anxieties are primarily sexual, and thus identify her as something new in elegy: not a wife but a faithful puella. This poem gives us the poetic voice of a loving, loyal, contracted courtesan.

The novel Keroncong Cinta by Ahmad Faishal was an adolescent novel about social, politics and culture life of a family due to the interracial Europe-Java marriage at the end of colonial era. This research used postcolonial approach to reveal the forms of characters hybridity and interpret it in relation to the colonial era in Dutch East Indies context. This research discovered that the hybridity in Dutch East Indies caused by marriage, concubinage, education and the spirit to gain equality experienced by the Indo. The forms of characters hybridity showed through the identity ambivalence and ambiguity as the results of contradiction between indigenous and Europe cultures. These forms among others are identity ambiguity and awareness of the Indo as the third class, the blurring of colonialism contradictive lines and a lady’s Europe orientation. This research also proofed that adolescent literatures, as a part of popular literatures, are not only literatures filled with entertainment and simplicity.AbstrakNovel Keroncong Cinta karya Ahmad Faishal merupakan novel remaja yang menceritakan kehidupan sosial, politik, dan budaya sebuah keluarga karena perkawinan antarras Eropa-Jawa di akhir masa kolonial. Penelitian ini memanfaatkan pendekatan poskolonial untuk mengungkap bentuk-bentuk hibriditas tokoh dan diinterpretasi dalam kaitannya dengan konteks masa kolonial di Hindia Belanda. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa hibriditas di Hindia Belanda disebabkan oleh perkawinan, pergundikan, pendidikan, dan semangat memperoleh persamaan derajat yang dialami kalangan Indo. Bentuk-bentuk hibriditas tokoh ditunjukkan dengan adanya ambivalensi dan ambiguitas identitas sebagai akibat dari kontradiksi antara kultur Eropa dan pribumi. Bentukbentuk hibriditas tokoh antara lain ambiguitas identitas dan kesadaran orang Indo sebagai kelas ketiga;pengaburan garis-garis kontradiktif koloniaslisme; dan orientasi ke-Eropa-an seorang Nyai. Penelitian ini sekaligusmembuktikan bahwa sastra remaja, sebagai bagian sastra populer, bukan hanya sastra yang berisi hiburan dan kesederhanaan.

Language conflict is a common feature of Caribbean literary production, but multilingual experimentation can be obscured by the scholarly organization of the region into blocs defined by colonial languages. Recent attention to literary multilingualism in comparative literature offers potential critical tools to investigate the region’s linguistic variability. However, European-focused scholarship prioritizes a national focus that cannot account for the complex relationships between colonial languages and Caribbean Creoles. This essay considers three works from the Dominican Republic and Jamaica: the anthology Palabras de una isla / Paroles d’une île, Juan Bosch’s story “Luis Pie,” and the Groundwork Theater Company’s Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine. The author argues that these texts emphasize different critical priorities from the standard concerns of theorists of literary multilingualism. Consequently, these writers employ a broad range of literary strategies that enrich decolonial conversations about social transformation by imagining models of communication that challenge colonial language hierarchies.

When I was young, it seemed that most Americans had never heard of Burma. Since communication with Burma was constrained, I was curious about its culture, which my family carried so near to their hearts. My first memory of seeing “Burma” involved watching The King and I (1956) on television. I was captivated by Rita Moreno playing Tuptim, a Burmese girl who is given to the king of Siam by the prince of Burma and is secretly having an affair with her escort. The new British governess gives Tuptim Uncle Tom's Cabin to improve her English. The Burmese concubine articulates her frustration by staging an adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel for the king and some European visitors. During the performance, Tuptim attempts an escape with her Burmese lover.

“Tjerita Nji Paina” was written during the Dutch Colonial period in Indonesia in 1900. In the work of H. Kommer, “Tjerita Nji Paina” is appeared differently compared to the other writting on gender similar issues at the same era. The author’s strong simphaty and compassion to ”nyai” destiny has ameliorated the negative image of concubine life system in the Dutch Kolonial era. This literature work has clearly shown the braveness of a Dutch Indies woman in dealing with unfairness she faced in her inferior position. Her consiousness on the existent that she was under pressure of patriarchy superiority power has pushed her to struggle to be equal to men. The aim of this research is to unshield ideas fighting the patriarchy system in the community. Other, it pictured the women’s efforts to come out from the negative stereotipe that show them as weak and powerless. This research is conducted using feminist literary criticism approach in descriptive qualitative methods.

L’objectiu d’aquest article és estudiar alguns mots que formen part del vocabulari usat en les relacions en què està present la unió d’un home i una dona fora del matrimoni. Es tracta de conductes sexuals considerades a l’època desordenades o contràries a la norma social, i, per tant, a més d’estar tipificades com a delictes de naturalesa penal, els qui les practicaven, especialment les dones, eren marginats per la societat. En ocasions, el vocabulari es fa ressò d’aquesta major marginalitat de la dona. Aquest treball es basa en nou processos criminals valencians inèdits dels segles XVI i XVII sobre adulteri i concubinat. En l’estudi del vocabulari se segueix una metodologia historicocomparativa, que repassa la història dels mots seleccionats, des de la seua primera documentació coneguda fins la seua presència en els diccionaris normatius actuals. Així mateix, les veus catalanes se situen en el context romànic, comparant-les amb les d’altres llengües.

L’article examina els antecedents i contextos de l’episodi de trobada d’Hipòlit amb l’Emperadriu de Constantinoble al Tirant lo Blanc (caps. 248-264) des de diferents punts de vista, en especial la comparació amb les imatges medievals d’Anunciacions. A més d’analitzar amb detall els moments d’aproximació cortesa d’Hipòlit, plens d’equivocs religiosos, s’estudien els precedents clàssics i religiosos del personatge de l’Emperadriu, així com les il·lustracions amb anuncis de concubinats perillosos que presenten els primers llibres de cavalleries manuscrits i impresos, i alguns tractats religiosos i mèdics romànics. Tot seguit, s’analitza el capítol principal de l’episodi (cap. 260) amb la preparació de la cambra i el llit per part de l’Emperadriu. Acció i descripció de l’alcova es relacionen amb el paper decisiu que van haver d’exercir les alcoves pintades en moltes Anunciacions durant els segles xiv i xv, on reïx el llit (thalamus Virginis) pel seu significat mariològic i cristològic. Com que la imatge de l’anunci de Gabriel a Maria, amb el rerefons d’aquest thalamus, va servir també com a model per a imaginar i il·lustrar anuncis o avisos de concepció extraordinària efectuats per esperits, àngels o dimonis, es proposa que Hipòlit i l’Emperadriu pogueren actuar com a contrafigures de l’Anunciació, dins d’un complex joc d’intertextualitats que afectaria episodis sacres i profans d’altres obres de ficció, com ara La Celestina.

In the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Su Tong, a leading representative of avant-garde writers, is good at using creatively narrative skills to develop his stories. Raise the Red Lantern is one of his famous masterpieces, which ranks among the top 100 Chinese novels of the 20th century. The story began with a small sedan chair carrying Lotus, a 19-year-old college student, into Chen Family. She was going to be a fourth concubine for Chen Zuoqian, a 50-year-old master of Chen family. The books tells the unfortunate marriage and tragic fate of Lotus under the feudal system in Chen family. This paper aimed to analyze and appreciate narrative art in Raise the Red Lantern from three aspects: narrative contents, narrative language and narrative techniques, which will enrich the interpretation of the novella. Su Tong made use of vivid characterization, delicate environmental description, rich metaphors and symbols as well as intradiegetic narrator to represent the readers the tragedy of women in a feudal family and provoke in-dept thinking of fate of women group.

This research is a descriptive qualitative research which aims to (1) find out the descriptions of Balinese women in Sulandri's concubine by I Made Iwan Darmawan which is studied based on the study of communication ethnography and (2) to know the description of Balinese women in the short story of Kaede Bedolot by Gede Aries Pidrawan, study of ethnographic communication. Sources of data in this study are two short stories of Sulandri's concubine by I Made Iwan Darmawan and Kaung Bedolot by Gede Aries Pidrawan which contains the description of Balinese women figure. The research method used is documentation study method. Processing or data analysis is done through data reduction, data presentation, conclusion drawing, and verification of research data. This research will provide the description of Balinese women in two short stories and has the benefit of being a learning media in the lectures, enriching the material of literary analysis, and enriching the treasury of critical discourse analysis, art, and culture of Indonesia especially Bali. The results of this study indicate that in the work of short story (short story) Selir Sulandri by I Made Iwan Darmawan who studied based on the study of communication ethnography, Balinese women described as women who follow patrilineal lineage, high social position, forced to marry early for the social and political status of the family , to experience polygamy, to impinge on the sexual desires of men (kings / husbands), jealousy, envy, gossip, and possessive jealousy, subjugation to men's power, discrimination, courage in the midst of situations critical, and must be willing to perform mesatia ritual. In the short story of Kaung Bedolot by Gede Aries Pidrawan, the figure of Balinese women is described not as different as that of wanting a coveted marriage, having polygamy, following patrilineal lineage, being forced to marry early for the social and political status of the family, doing housework, resigned and sincerely accepting fate, become victims of domestic violence, be brave in the middle of a discouraging situation, and end up with deaths from domestic violence. The result of this research is useful both theoretically and practically for students, lecturers, literature lovers, and education. Other researchers are expected to conduct further research in more depth.

Abstract In explaining a text-critical problem in Judges 19:2 this paper demonstrates that MT attempts to ameliorate the horrific rape and murder of an innocent person by sexual slander, a feature also seen in Balaam and Jezebel. Although Balaam and Jezebel are condemned in the biblical traditions, it is clear that negative portrayals of each have been augmented by later tradents. Although initially good, Balaam is blamed by late biblical tradents (Num 31:16) for the sin at Baal Peor (Numbers 25), where “the people begin to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.” Jezebel is condemned for sorcery and harlotry in 2 Kgs 9:22, although no other text depicts her harlotry. The concubine, like Balaam and Jezebel, dies at the hands of Israelites, demonstrating a clear pattern among the late tradents of the Hebrew Bible who seek to justify the deaths of these characters at the hands of fellow Israelites.

AbstractReading 1 Kings 1-2, the account of the succession of Solomon, one is left with a strange impression. On the one hand, in its current telling and context it clearly seeks to offer a favourable account of the process. On the other hand, one just has to scratch the surface of this story to see an underlying and less favourable account. The paper notes the importance role that private conversations play in the story to argue that an earlier telling of the story was largely fabricated by a party opposed to the Davidic monarchy and Solomon in particular. According to this telling, a cloud stood over Solomon’s legitimacy; David was hoodwinked by Nathan and Bathsheba into believing that he had made an earlier promise that Solomon would succeed; Solomon came to the throne by means of a palace coup; Abishag was not David’s concubine and Adonijah’s request for her was quite innocent; however, his approach and private conversation with Bathsheba was manipulated by Solomon and his supporters to remove significant personal opponents.

Abstract Elements of the semantic frame of Sacrificing recurrently appear at key positions throughout the narratives of Judges. Humans in Judges are violently treated as animals, and many times treated as victims brought to sacrifice. This is the case of Ehud Ben Gera killing Eglon, the cutting of Adoni-Bezekʼs fingers by the tribe of Judah, and the Philistines slaughtered by Shamgar’s oxgoad, thus suggesting images of cattle violently handled by the Israelite judges. In addition, Jephthahʼs daughter is sacrificed, and an Israelite concubine is slaughtered by a Levite. Other elements present in the narratives also evoke the semantic frame of Sacrificing; Abimelech kills his brothers on a single stone, which may represent an altar. He scatters salt over the city of Shechem, a procedure connected to the preparation of sacrifices in the Bible, and Ehud Ben Gerahʼs right thigh symbolizes the thigh of the altar (Lev 1:11). These actual and symbolic acts of violence and sacrificing point at a deterioration of moral standards in the period of the Judges, and perhaps implicitly criticize the priestly way of life, in which sacrificing is a significant procedure.

Raden Jaka Prabangkara was the son of Brawijaya V, the last king of the Majapahit Kingdom. He was the king's son of an ordinary woman or concubine. During the reign of his father, which was around the 15th century, Raden Jaka Prabangkara had the role as a village chief in Sungging area. Besides, he was also given the task to become a palace painter because of his expertise in painting. This study aims to describe the traces of Raden Jaka Prabangkara's life during the reign of Majapahit Kingdom in the 15th century and the lessons that can be learned from the stories in Babad Jaka Tingkir. This study uses qualitative research method based on the literature review in the book of Babad Jaka Tingkir: Babad Pajang written by Sastronaryatmo (2011) which has been translated into Indonesian. The results of this study are (1) The background story of the birth of Raden Jaka Prabangkara in Babad Jaka Tingkir, (2) The role of Raden Jaka Prabangkara in the 15th century during the reign of Majapahit Kingdom in Babad Jaka Tingkir, (3) The chronology of the seclusion of Raden Jaka Prabangkara to China in Babad Jaka Tingkir, (4) The wisdom that can be learned from Raden Jaka Prabangkara's life. Overall, it can be seen that there are traces of Raden Jaka Prabangkara's life journey during the reign of Majapahit kingdom in 15th century based on the book of Babad Jaka Tingkir.

This study is a literary study that discusses the picture of the social reality of Japanese society in a novel by Rei Kimura entitled Butterfly in the Wind. The method used is descriptive analytic. The data are in the form of excerpts or sentence excerpts in novels that describe the social reality of Japanese society. The theory used is the sociological theory of literature and Marx's social analysis approach. From the analysis, it is concluded that various social realities of Japanese society are depicted in the novel Butterfly in the Wind which includes aspects of politics, economy, culture, education, family, morals, gender, religion, and technology. In the political aspect, it is illustrated that the attitude of government (bakufu) is arbitrary and unfair, especially among farmers and fishermen groups. The economic aspect illustrates the economic gap between groups of aristocrats and ordinary people. Cultural and religious aspects are reflected in the patriarchal culture of Japanese society and Buddhist rituals which are carried out such as funeral processions. The aspect of education illustrates the unfairness and distribution of education for Japanese society at that time. The family aspect shows a picture of affection between family members, especially parents and children. The moral aspect is reflected in the behavior of people who hate Okichi's background as a concubine. The gender aspect illustrates the gender bias between men and women. Finally, on the technological aspect, the reality of Japanese technology is still low compared to European and American countries.

This paper attempted to examine how the war between Cho and Han was embodied and modified in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese musical dance drama by focusing on the Chinese Peking Opera “Paewangbyulhee (Farewell My Concubine),” Korean Jeongjae “Hanjangmu” and Japanese Noh “Hangwoo.”. Peking Opera “Paewangbyulhee” is divided into nine chapters, mainly composed of the last battle of the War between Cho and Han, which is also described as the song of surrounded by enemies on all four sides. The events unfold in an orderly causal relationship, and the description is also very detailed. Through this incident, “Paewangbyulhee” depicts the love and death of Xiang-Yu and Yuji through the narrative reproduction of the song surrounded by enemies on all four sides. Royal Court public performance “Hangjangmu” has no chapter but it can be divided into three paragraphs, mainly composed of the confrontation between Xiang-Yu and Liu Bang in the Hongmunyeon feast. Also, the performance of Xiang-yu and Liu-bang’s vassals, who want to kill or protect, is centered on the sword dance. Therefore, “Hangjangmu” embodies the image of a loyal subject to loves and respects his king through the dramatic reproduction of the Hongmunyeon feast. There is no chapter division in Noh “Hangwoo,” but it can be divided into three paragraphs in terms of form. Life's uncertainty and sadness are constantly emphasized, centered on the reminiscences and emotions of unrealistic characters, and it tried to overcome by returning to the Buddhist world. Therefore, “Hangwoo” embodies the emptiness of life through the representation of the Cho-Han post-war. However, “Paewangbyulhee” emphasizes the love and death of Xiang-yu and Yu-ji, so the tragic beauty is strengthened, and “Hangjangmu” has strengthened elegant beauty by dramatically revealing the content of the character being congratulated, the dignity of the royal family and the content related to the loyal subjects to love and respect his king. In “Hangwoo,” the sublime beauty is strengthened by embodying the emptiness of life and returning to the Buddhist world through restrained music, characters dialogues, and songs. In the end, it can be said that the musical dance drama works of Korea, China, and Japan related to the war between Cho and Han embody distinctive literature by utilizing their literary assets and sense of beauty.

This study explores the subtle patterns, variety, and changes in Chinese concubinage during the seventeenth century by focusing on cases described in Xing-shiyin-yuan zhuan, a seventeenth-century Chinese novel, and other literary and historical sources. It argues that the various social practices of concubinage in late Ming China diverged from government regulations. Chinese concubinage underwent remarkable changes by the seventeenth century in comparison with earlier periods. Even as concubinage was widely accepted, certain Confucian intellectuals of this period criticized the institution.

Nyai (the Javanese term for concubine) is one of the themes that is widely discussed in the realm of Indonesian literature starting from peranakan Chinese literature, literature during the colonial period, as well as modern Indonesian literature; both written by native writers and non-indigenous writers (Indonesians and peranakan Chinese). Based on these phenomena, this study will discuss the image of Nyai in literary works with a descriptive qualitative research method. The object materials of this research are the novels Nyai Wonokromo by Mayon Sutrisno, Tjerita Njai Isah by Ferdinand Wiggers, and Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang by Kwee Tek Hoay. In Nyai Wonokromo and Tjerita Njai Isah, the characters of Nyai presented in both novels are fool-blooded Dutch Nyai, while the novel Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang presents a Chinese Nyai. This study will compare the representation of Nyai as belonging to the Dutch and that of the Chinese, as well as comparing the images of Nyai written by indigenous writers and non-indigenous writers. The discussion of nyai includes the position of nyai in the social construction of society and its relationship with the people around it. Key words: nyai, women, colonial, peranakan Chinese, Europe

With the rise of feminist thinking, the phenomenon of the rape culture has admittedly drawn the attention of many academics especially in biblical studies. While several academics have done a commendable job of demonstrating how ancient biblical stories can have a bearing upon elements of the modern rape culture, the bulk of the literature has been penned from a Western standpoint and it is only by inference that one can find a resonance with the African situation. Given that the rape culture is not just a Western phenomenon but a pervasive global challenge, this article introduces an African perspective on this matter. Wearing feminist hermeneutical lenses, the article engages in a comparative analysis of the gender-based violations, human rights abuses, and the absolute lack of hospitality depicted in Judges 19–21 with the experiences of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It then taps into the lived experiences of the given women as resources which can be used to seriously think about the ugly dehumanising effects of rape and in so doing, bolster efforts towards combating the modern rape culture. In this article, it is our contention that people, the world over, and the Zimbabwean society in particular, need to earnestly acknowledge the pain and anguish experienced by the Levite’s concubine as well as Munengami and other countless women who have been victims of rape. We conclude the article by restating that wherever the rape culture is prevalent, people need to embrace and uphold the principles of human dignity, hospitality, justice and equality, and resolutely move away from a culture of denial and apathy when it comes to issues of rape.Contribution: This article juxtaposes the experiences of the sexual violence endured by the concubine in Judges 19 and that of a Zimbabwean woman, Rutendo Munengami. It concludes by proffering possible ways of curbing the rape culture which has crept into Africa like a cancerous worm.

AbstractReports from antiquity — two factual and another based on myth — claim that Ptolemy I was a son of the Macedonian king Philip II. If so, Ptolemy was a half-brother of Alexander the Great. Scholars suppose that this rumour was promoted by Ptolemy I. But this cannot be confirmed. It seems rather that Arsinoë, the mother of Ptolemy I, was a concubine at the court of Philip II and that a rumour existed that Ptolemy I was illegitimately born. This rumour developed in two separate ways. In Macedon, probably in the late 280's BCE, it was claimed that the father of Ptolemy was Philip II. The story may have been inspired by Ptolemy Keraunos in the course of his quest for the Macedonian throne. In Egypt, however, in spite of an apparent reluctance of Ptolemy I to link Lagos with his name, it was officially proclaimed in the reign of his son (Ptolemy II) that Lagos was the father of Ptolemy I. It is possible thereby that Ptolemy II removed the stigma of bastardy from the first Ptolemaic king.

Vehbi-i Yemani's book Kitâb-ı Rûhânî Fî Şerh-i Mesnevî-i Muhtasar-ı Nûrânî is based on Mevlana's Mesnevi-i Manevi. It is a mixed verse-prose commentary written in the 17th century. The work includes the commentary of the first 143 couplets of the Mesnevi, which also includes a part of the story "The Sultan and the Sick Concubine". In this respect, it can be included among the Turkish commentaries made to a part of the Mesnevi in the class of commentary classifications. However, neither the author nor the commentary on the Mesnevi have been included in the relevant literature in almost all of the studies carried out in this field so far. For this reason, it is aimed to bring both the author and his work to the agenda with this study. Vehbi-i Yemani wrote this work with the intention and hope that it would be “ãoñra gelen ve gencÿr u künÿz-ı kemÀl olan iòvÀn-ı nihÀna maømÿn-ı kitÀb ve melfÿô-ı òitÀbı tÀrìò olsun” and “lemèa-i bÀriúa-i duèÀlarına vÀsıùa-i tevessül bulunsun.” As if to serve this purpose, the commentator tried to explain the Mesnevi in the best way; In the commentary of the couplets, he used a very diverse and rich source of citations and quotations from Arabic, Persian and Turkish literature. In this study, the sources of the Mesnevi will be mentioned, due to the importance of knowing the annotated text and the sources of the text in order to understand the nature of the commentary; The commentaries written on the Mesnevi will be mentioned and information will be given about the source range of the commentaries in question. Based on the main purpose of writing the article, detailed review notes will be shared about the Kitâb-ı Rûhânî Fî Şerh-i Mesnevi-i Muhtasar-ı Nûrânî, which will take place in the literature of Vehbi-i Yemani's "Mesnevi Commentaries", and information will be given about the resource network that supports the commentary. and those within the framework of Sufism from these sources will be discussed in detail.

Introduction Lillian Ng was born in Singapore and lived in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom before migrating to Australia with her daughter and Ah Mah Yin Jie (“Ah Mahs are a special group of people who took a vow to remain unmarried … [so they] could stick together as a group and make a living together” (Yu 118)). Ng studied classical Chinese at home, then went to an English school and later on studied Medicine. Her first book, Silver Sister (1994), was short-listed for the inaugural Angus & Robertson/Bookworld Prize in 1993 and won the Human Rights Award in 1995. Ng defines herself as a “Chinese living in Australia” (Yu 115). Food, flesh and meat are recurrent topics in Lillian Ng´s second novel Swallowing Clouds, published in 1997. These topics are related to desire and can be used as a synecdoche (a metaphor that describes part/whole relations) of the human body: food is needed to survive and pleasure can be obtained from other people´s bodies. This paper focuses on one type of meat and animal, pork and the pig, and on the relation between the two main characters, Syn and Zhu Zhiyee. Syn, the main character in the novel, is a Shanghainese student studying English in Sydney who becomes stranded after the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989. As she stops receiving money from her mother and fears repression if she goes back to China, she begins to work in a Chinese butcher shop, owned by Zhu Zhiyee, which brings her English lessons to a standstill. Syn and Zhu Zhiyee soon begin a two-year love affair, despite the fact that Zhu Zhiyee is married to KarLeng and has three daughters. The novel is structured as a prologue and four days, each of which has a different setting and temporal location. The prologue introduces the story of an adulterous woman who was punished to be drowned in a pig´s basket in the HuanPu River in the summer of 1918. As learnt later on, Syn is the reincarnation of this woman, whose purpose in life is to take revenge on men by taking their money. The four days, from the 4th to the 7th of June 1994, mark the duration of a trip to Beijing and Shanghai that Syn takes as member of an Australian expedition in order to visit her mother with the security of an Australian passport. During these four days, the reader learns about different Chinese landmarks, such as the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Ming Tomb and the Summer Palace, as well as some cultural events, such as a Chinese opera and eating typical foods like Peking duck. However, the bulk of the plot of the book deals with the sexual relationship, erotic games and fantasies of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee in the period between 1989 and 1992, as well as Syn´s final revenge in January 1993. Pigs The fact that Zhu Zhiyee is a butcher allows Lillian Ng to include references to pigs and pork throughout the novel. Some of them refer to the everyday work of a butcher shop, as the following examples illustrate: “Come in and help me with the carcass,” he [Zhu Zhiyee] pointed to a small suckling pig hung on a peg. Syn hesitated, not knowing how to handle the situation. “Take the whole pig with the peg,” he commanded (11).Under dazzling fluorescent tubes and bright spotlights, trays of red meat, pork chops and lamb cutlets sparkled like jewels … The trays edged with red cellophane frills and green underlay breathed vitality and colour into the slabs of pork ribs and fillets (15).Buckets of pig´s blood with a skim of froth took their place on the floor; gelled ones, like sliced cubes of large agate, sat in tin trays labelled in Chinese. More discreetly hidden were the gonads and penises of goats, bulls and pigs. (16)These examples are representative of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee´s relationship. The first quotation deals with their interaction: most of the time Zhu Zhiyee orders Syn how to act, either in the shop or in bed. The second extract describes the meat’s “vitality” and this is the quality of Syn's skin that mesmerised Zhu when he met her: “he was excited, electrified by the sight of her unblemished, translucent skin, unlined, smooth as silk. The glow of the warmth of human skin” (13). Moreover, the lights seem to completely illuminate the pieces of meat and this is the way Zhu Zhiyee leers at Syn´s body, as it can be read in the following extract: “he turned again to fix his gaze on Syn, which pierced and penetrated her head, her brain, eyes, permeated her whole body, seeped into her secret places and crevices” (14). The third excerpt introduces the sexual organs of some of the animals, which are sold to some customers for a high price. Meat is also sexualised by Zhu Zhiyee´s actions, such as his pinching the bottoms of chickens and comparing them with “sacrificial virgins”: “chickens, shamelessly stripped and trussed, hung by their necks, naked in their pimply white skin, seemed like sacrificial virgins. Syn often caught Zhu pinching their fleshy bottoms, while wrapping and serving them to the housewives” (15-16). Zhu also makes comments relating food with sex while he is having lunch next to Syn, which could be considered sexual harassment. All these extracts exemplify the relationship between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee: the orders, the looks and the implicit sexuality in the quotidian activities in the butcher´s shop. There are also a range of other expressions that include similes with the word `pig´ in Ng´s novel. One of the most recurrent is comparing the left arm and hand of Zhu Zhiyee´s mother with a “pig´s trotter”. Zhu Zhiyee´s mother is known as ZhuMa and Syn is very fond of her, as ZhuMa accepts her and likes her more than her own daughter-in-law. The comparison of ZhuMa´s arm and hand with a trotter may be explained by the fact that ZhuMa´s arm is swollen but also by the loving representation of pigs in Chinese culture. As Seung-Og Kim explains in his article “Burials, Pigs, and Political Prestige in Neolithic China”: In both Melanesia and Asia, pigs are viewed as a symbolic representation of human beings (Allen 1976: 42; Healey 1985; Rappaport 1967: 58; Roscoe 1989: 223-26). Piglets are treated as pets and receive a great deal of loving attention, and they in turn express affection for their human “parents.” They also share some physiological features with human beings, being omnivorous and highly reproductive (though humans do not usually have multiple litters) and similar internal anatomy (Roscoe 1989: 225). In short, pigs not only have a symbiotic relationship with humans biologically but also are of great importance symbolically (121). Consequently, pigs are held in high esteem, taken care of and loved. Therefore, comparing a part of a human´s body, such as an arm or a hand, for example, to a part of a pig´s body such as a pig´s trotter is not negative, but has positive connotations. Some descriptions of ZhuMa´s arm and hand can be read in the following excerpts: “As ZhuMa handed her the plate of cookies Syn saw her left arm, swollen like a pig´s trotter” (97); “Syn was horrified, and yet somewhat intrigued by this woman without a breast, with a pig´s trotter arm and a tummy like a chessboard” (99), “mimicking the act of writing with her pig-trotter hand” (99), and ZhuMa was praising the excellence of the opera, the singing, acting, the costumes, and the elaborate props, waving excitedly with her pig trotter arm and pointing with her stubby fingers while she talked. (170) Moreover, the expression “pig´s trotters” is also used as an example of the erotic fetishism with bound feet, as it can be seen in the following passage, which will be discussed below: I [Zhu Zhiyee] adore feet which are slender… they seem so soft, like pig´s trotters, so cute and loving, they play tricks on your mind. Imagine feeling them in bed under your blankets—soft cottonwool lumps, plump and cuddly, makes you want to stroke them like your lover´s hands … this was how the bound feet appealed to men, the erotic sensation when balanced on shoulders, clutched in palms, strung to the seat of a garden swing … no matter how ugly a woman is, her tiny elegant feet would win her many admirers (224).Besides writing about pigs and pork as part of the daily work of the butcher shop and using the expression “pig´s trotter”, “pig” is also linked to money in two sentences in the book. On the one hand, it is used to calculate a price and draw attention to the large amount it represents: “The blouse was very expensive—three hundred dollars, the total takings from selling a pig. Two pigs if he purchased two blouses” (197). On the other, it works as an adjective in the expression “piggy-bank”, the money box in the form of a pig, an animal that represents abundance and happiness in the Chinese culture: “She borrowed money from her neighbours, who emptied pieces of silver from their piggy-banks, their life savings”(54). Finally, the most frequent porcine expression in Ng´s Swallowing Clouds makes reference to being drowned in a pig´s basket, which represents 19 of the 33 references to pigs or pork that appear in the novel. The first three references appear in the prologue (ix, x, xii), where the reader learns the story of the last woman who was killed by drowning in a pig´s basket as a punishment for her adultery. After this, two references recount a soothsayer´s explanation to Syn about her nightmares and the fact that she is the reincarnation of that lady (67, 155); three references are made by Syn when she explains this story to Zhu Zhiyee and to her companion on the trip to Beijing and Shanghai (28, 154, 248); one refers to a feeling Syn has during sexual intercourse with Zhu Zhiyee (94); and one when the pig basket is compared to a cricket box, a wicker or wooden box used to carry or keep crickets in a house and listen to them singing (73). Furthermore, Syn reflects on the fact of drowning (65, 114, 115, 171, 172, 173, 197, 296) and compares her previous death with that of Concubine Pearl, the favourite of Emperor Guanxu, who was killed by order of his aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi (76-77). The punishment of drowning in a pig´s basket can thus be understood as retribution for a transgression: a woman having an extra-marital relationship, going against the establishment and the boundaries of the authorised. Both the woman who is drowned in a pig´s basket in 1918 and Syn have extra-marital affairs and break society’s rules. However, the consequences are different: the concubine dies and Syn, her reincarnation, takes revenge. Desire, Transgression and Eroticism Xavier Pons writes about desire, repression, freedom and transgression in his book Messengers of Eros: Representations of Sex in Australian Writing (2009). In this text, he explains that desire can be understood as a positive or as a negative feeling. On the one hand, by experiencing desire, a person feels alive and has joy de vivre, and if that person is desired in return, then, the feelings of being accepted and happiness are also involved (13). On the other hand, desire is often repressed, as it may be considered evil, anarchic, an enemy of reason and an alienation from consciousness (14). According to Pons: Sometimes repression, in the form of censorship, comes from the outside—from society at large, or from particular social groups—because of desire´s subversive nature, because it is a force which, given a free rein, would threaten the higher purpose which a given society assigns to other (and usually ideological) forces … Repression may also come from the inside, via the internalization of censorship … desire is sometimes feared by the individual as a force alien to his/her true self which would leave him/her vulnerable to rejection or domination, and would result in loss of freedom (14).Consequently, when talking about sexual desire, the two main concepts to be dealt with are freedom and transgression. As Pons makes clear, “the desiring subject can be taken advantage of, manipulated like a puppet [as h]is or her freedom is in this sense limited by the experience of desire” (15). While some practices may be considered abusive, such as bondage or sado-masochism, they may be deliberately and freely chosen by the partners involved. In this case, these practices represent “an encounter between equals: dominance is no more than make-believe, and a certain amount of freedom (as much as is compatible with giving oneself up to one´s fantasies) is maintained throughout” (24). Consequently, the perception of freedom changes with each person and situation. What is transgressive depends on the norms in every culture and, as these evolve, so do the forms of transgression (Pons 43). Examples of transgressions can be: firstly, the separation of sex from love, adultery or female and male homosexuality, which happen with the free will of the partners; or, secondly, paedophilia, incest or bestiality, which imply abuse. Going against society’s norms involves taking risks, such as being discovered and exiled from society or feeling isolated as a result of a feeling of difference. As the norms change according to culture, time and person, an individual may transgress the rules and feel liberated, but later on do the same thing and feel alienated. As Pons declares, “transgressing the rules does not always lead to liberation or happiness—transgression can turn into a trap and turn out to be simply another kind of alienation” (46). In Swallowing Clouds, Zhu Zhiyee transgresses the social norms of his time by having an affair with Syn: firstly, because it is extra-marital, he and his wife, KarLeng, are Catholic and fidelity is one of the promises made when getting married; and, secondly, because he is Syn´s boss and his comments and ways of flirting with her could be considered sexual harassment. For two years, the affair is an escape from Zhu Zhiyee´s daily worries and stress and a liberation and fulfillment of his sexual desires. However, he introduces Syn to his mother and his sisters, who accept her and like her more than his wife. He feels trapped, though, when KarLeng guesses and threatens him with divorce. He cannot accept this as it would mean loss of face in their neighbourhood and society, and so he decides to abandon Syn. Syn´s transgression becomes a trap for her as Zhu, his mother and his sisters have become her only connection with the outside world in Australia and this alienates her from both the country she lives in and the people she knows. However, Syn´s transgression also turns into a trap for Zhu Zhiyee because she will not sign the documents to give him the house back and every month she sends proof of their affair to KarLeng in order to cause disruption in their household. This exposure could be compared with the humiliation suffered by the concubine when she was paraded in a pig´s basket before she was drowned in the HuangPu River. Furthermore, the reader does not know whether KarLeng finally divorces Zhu Zhiyee, which would be his drowning and loss of face and dishonour in front of society, but can imagine the humiliation, shame and disgrace KarLeng makes him feel every month. Pons also depicts eroticism as a form of transgression. In fact, erotic relations are a power game, and seduction can be a very effective weapon. As such, women can use seduction to obtain power and threaten the patriarchal order, which imposes on them patterns of behaviour, language and codes to follow. However, men also use seduction to get their own benefits, especially in political and social contexts. “Power has often been described as the ultimate aphrodisiac” (Pons 32) and this can be seen in many of the sexual games between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee in Swallowing Clouds, where Zhu Zhiyee is the active partner and Syn becomes little more than an object that gives pleasure. A clear reference to erotic fetishism is embedded in the above-mentioned quote on bound feet, which are compared to pig´s trotters. In fact, bound feet were so important in China in the millennia between the Song Dynasty (960-1276) and the early 20th century that “it was impossible to find a husband” (Holman) without them: “As women’s bound feet and shoes became the essence of feminine beauty, a fanatical aesthetic and sexual mystique developed around them. The bound foot was understood to be the most intimate and erotic part of the female anatomy, and wives, consorts and prostitutes were chosen solely on the size and shape of their feet” (Holman). Bound feet are associated in Ng’s novel with pig´s trotters and are described as “cute and loving … soft cottonwool lumps, plump and cuddly, [that] makes you want to stroke them like your lover´s hands” (224). This approach towards bound feet and, by extension, towards pig´s trotters, can be related to the fond feelings Melanesian and Asian cultures have towards piglets, which “are treated as pets and receive a great deal of loving attention” (Kim 121). Consequently, the bound feet can be considered a synecdoche for the fond feelings piglets inspire. Food and Sex The fact that Zhu Zhiyee is a butcher and works with different types of meat, including pork, that he chops it, sells it and gives cooking advice, is not gratuitous in the novel. He is used to being in close proximity to meat and death and seeing Syn’s pale skin through which he can trace her veins excites him. Her flesh is alive and represents, therefore, the opposite of meat. He wants to seduce her, which is human hunting, and he wants to study her, to enjoy her body, which can be compared to animals looking at their prey and deciding where to start eating from. Zhu´s desire for Syn seems destructive and dangerous. In the novel, bodies have a price: dead animals are paid for and eaten and their role is the satiation of human hunger. But humans, who are also animals, have a price as well: flesh is paid for, in the form of prostitution or being a mistress, and its aim is satiation of human sex. Generally speaking, sex in the novel is compared to food either in a direct or an indirect way, and making love is constantly compared to cooking, the preparation of food and eating (as in Pons 303). Many passages in Swallowing Clouds have cannibalistic connotations, all of these being used as metaphors for Zhu Zhiyee’s desire for Syn. As mentioned before, desire can be positive (as it makes a person feel alive) or negative (as a form of internal or social censorship). For Zhu Zhiyee, desire is positive and similar to a drug he is addicted to. For example, when Zhu and Syn make delivery rounds in an old Mazda van, he plays the recordings he made the previous night when they were having sex and tries to guess when each moan happened. Sex and Literature Pons explains that “to write about sex … is to address a host of issues—social, psychological and literary—which together pretty much define a culture” (6). Lillian Ng´s Swallowing Clouds addresses a series of issues. The first of these could be termed ‘the social’: Syn´s situation after the Tiananmen Massacre; her adulterous relationship with her boss and being treated and considered his mistress; the rapes in Inner Mongolia; different reasons for having an abortion; various forms of abuse, even by a mother of her mentally handicapped daughter; the loss of face; betrayal; and revenge. The second issue is the ‘psychological’, with the power relations and strategies used between different characters, psychological abuse, physical abuse, humiliation, and dependency. The third is the ‘literary’, as when the constant use of metaphors with Chinese cultural references becomes farcical, as Tseen Khoo notes in her article “Selling Sexotica” (2000: 164). Khoo explains that, “in the push for Swallowing Clouds to be many types of novels at once: [that is, erotica, touristic narrative and popular], it fails to be any one particularly successfully” (171). Swallowing Clouds is disturbing, full of stereotypes, and with repeated metaphors, and does not have a clear readership and, as Khoo states: “The explicit and implicit strategies behind the novel embody the enduring perceptions of what exotic, multicultural writing involves—sensationalism, voyeuristic pleasures, and a seemingly deliberate lack of rooted-ness in the Australian socioscape (172). Furthermore, Swallowing Clouds has also been defined as “oriental grunge, mostly because of the progression throughout the narrative from one gritty, exoticised sexual encounter to another” (Khoo 169-70).Other novels which have been described as “grunge” are Edward Berridge´s Lives of the Saints (1995), Justine Ettler´s The River Ophelia (1995), Linda Jaivin´s Eat Me (1995), Andrew McGahan´s Praise (1992) and 1988 (1995), Claire Mendes´ Drift Street (1995) or Christos Tsiolkas´ Loaded (1995) (Michael C). The word “grunge” has clear connotations with “dirtiness”—a further use of pig, but one that is not common in the novel. The vocabulary used during the sexual intercourse and games between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee is, however, coarse, and “the association of sex with coarseness is extremely common” (Pons 344). Pons states that “writing about sex is an attempt to overcome [the barriers of being ashamed of some human bodily functions], regarded as unnecessarily constrictive, and this is what makes it by nature transgressive, controversial” (344-45). Ng´s use of vocabulary in this novel is definitely controversial, indeed, so much so that it has been defined as banal or even farcical (Khoo 169-70).ConclusionThis paper has analysed the use of the words and expressions: “pig”, “pork” and “drowning in a pig’s basket” in Lillian Ng´s Swallowing Clouds. Moreover, the punishment of drowning in a pig’s basket has served as a means to study the topics of desire, transgression and eroticism, in relation to an analysis of the characters of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee, and their relationship. This discussion of various terminology relating to “pig” has also led to the study of the relationship between food and sex, and sex and literature, in this novel. 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