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Porous Privacy: The Literati Studio and Spatiality in Song China

Abstract

My dissertation examines the distinctive significance of the studio during the Song dynasty (960–1279) through its various literary and visual representations. Simply speaking, the studio was an enclosed site specifically used for reading, writing, and art creation. Pre-Song texts have records of a few early examples of studio sites in China. However, it was during the Song dynasty that the studio became a prominent cultural space for literati. The studio became both an object of scholarly representation and the medium through which the literatus’ everyday practices were effected. In this way, the studio served as a medium for the reproduction of literati culture itself. This dissertation concentrates on the spatiality of this medium. I argue that in Song literary representations, the studio was a porous private space: on the one hand, it provided a confined space for personal practices and self-cultivation; on the other hand, the studio was open to limited public interactions and was an emblematic display of literati self-identity.

The main body of this dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter traces the evolution of the literary configuration of the studio till the Song dynasty, to demonstrate the pivotal role that Song literature played in the construction of the studio space. Chapter two tackles the issue of how the represented studio worked as a private space for Song literati. However, the studio was a mostly private space in the sense that it also allowed for limited interactions and was used for display. Hence, in the third chapter, I argue that the studio can also work as a particular kind of social space. Chapter four analyzes the porous privacy of the studio from another dimension, the interrelationship among literati, scholarly objects, and the studio. The last chapter examines the studio in its relation to the exterior space—the interplay between the cultural studio and its natural surroundings in literary and pictorial representations.

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