Filial Obsessions

Chinese Patriliny and Its Discontents

P. Steven Sangren

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319504926
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319504933
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book employs a broad analysis of Chinese patriliny to propose a distinctive theoretical conceptualization of the role of desire in culture. It utilizes a unique synthesis of Marxian and psychoanalytic insights in arguing that Chinese patriliny is best understood as, simultaneously, "a mode of production of desire" and as "instituted fantasy." The argument advances through discussions and analyses of kinship, family, gender, filial piety, ritual, and (especially) mythic narratives. In each of these domains, P. Steven Sangren addresses the complex sentiments and ambivalences associated with filial relations. Unlike most earlier studies which approach Chinese patriliny and filial piety as irreducible markers of cultural difference, Sangren argues that Chinese patriliny is better approached as a topic of critical inquiry in its own right. 

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Series Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Chapter 1: Preface and Overview
• Chapter 2: Popular Religion, a Chinese Superboy, and “The Investiture of the Gods”
• Chapter 3: “Filial Piety” and Cultural Difference
• Chapter 4: Spirit Possession, Family Issues, and the Revelation of Gods’ Biographies
• Chapter 5: Filial Piety: Fathers, Real and Ideal
• Chapter 6: The Social Production of Desire
• Chapter 7: Ancestor Worship, the Confucian Father, and Filial Piety
• Chapter 8: Women as Outsiders: Princesses, Defilement, and Buddhist Salvation
• Chapter 9: Woman as Symptom: Beyond Gender?
• Chapter 10: A Concluding Manifesto: Culture and Desire
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index