Symptoms of an Unruly Age

<p><i>Symptoms of an Unruly Age</i> compares the writings of Li Zhi (1527–1602) and his late-Ming compatriots to texts composed by their European contemporaries including Montaigne Shakespeare and Cervantes. Emphasizing aesthetic patterns that transcend national boundaries Rivi Handler-Spitz explores these works as culturally distinct responses to similar social and economic tensions affecting early modern cultures on both ends of Eurasia.<br/><br/>The paradoxes ironies and self-contradictions that pervade these works are symptomatic of the hypocrisy social posturing and counterfeiting that afflicted both Chinese and European societies at the turn of the seventeenth century. <i>Symptoms of an Unruly Age</i> shows us that these texts produced thousands of miles away from one another each constitute cultural manifestations of early modernity.<br/><br/>The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.</p>