Pat Sieber, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, gives a lecture titled "The Difference Pronouns Can Make: Performance Aesthetics and China’s First Female Star Theater, 1260-1400."
It is well-known that China’s theatrical culture matured during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, featuring, among other innovations, a substantial number of female stars known for their ability to successfully perform an array of both male and female roles. In this talk, we will explore how the new mixed-register written language characteristic of playtexts and songs in Mongol China contributed to a leveling of social hierarchies through the fungibility of pronouns. In so doing, such texts and their innovative rhetoric functioned both as a symptom and as a catalyst of an expanded urban ecology of play.
Inaugural lectures celebrate Arts and Humanities faculty who have been promoted to the rank of professor. All lectures are held in the Faculty Club Grand Lounge from 4-6 p.m. and are preceded by a reception and followed by Q&A and discussion. All lectures are free and open to the public.
The Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences.