文／物．女／性．小說家：周芬伶與陳玉慧的器物、感官與歷史敘事

This research project focuses on Jade Y. Chen’s novels CHINA (2009) and THE MERRY LEAF (2014), as well as Chou Fen-ling's novel FU HAO of the Eastern Locus at Huayuanzhuang (2017) to explore several major themes: words,materials, women, gender, sexually transmitted diseases, and epidemics, we can see how the novelists have used different historical materials and contexts,combined with a consistent theme of writing and care, to create these novels that concentrate on these various issues. In addition to these three novels, we also include the essays of the two novelists in the last decade or so, in an attempt to explore and solve the following questions (1) "Objects": What are the objects inthe novels that have been overlooked by scholars but are worth exploring and contribute to the core themes? (2) "Words": How do novelists use historical materials? What are the reflections on historical fiction? How do they think about language, text, and writing? (3) "Women": How do novelists portray women in their novels? What kind of feminine care is shown? Is the connection between women and objects - for example, jade symbolizes the gentleman, while porcelain is the female body - simplified or misinterpreted? (4) Sexuality: How does the novelist develop the narrative through the humanity attached to the "object"? How does sex lead to illness and addiction? (5) The Novelist: Althoughthe novelist uses history as the background of his novels, she still focuses on the storytelling technique, can she provide a broader scope of understanding and interpretation in comparison with her essays in the past twenty years?