#  Tina Lu - February 23, 2021 

 





 

 **The Politics of Li Yu’s Xianqing ouji (Casual Expressions)**

 When it comes to an understanding of the politics of literature and literary production, our field is still largely dominated by Craig Clunas’ framework (itself largely adapted from Bourdieu). I am interested in considering the politics of Li Yu’s *Xianqing ouji* 閒情偶寄 (1671) not simply as a means for its author to climb up a social hierarchy but as a much more expansive political imagining. Many of the collection’s essays treat what are obviously political topics (for example, behavior appropriate to people of different social standing), but I will argue that their form and language also demand consideration as political acts.

 *Tina Lu is the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University.*