What is it about?
My chapter studies the presence of Aleko Lilius’s ‘Chinese pirate woman’ in Eric Linklater’s parodic fictions, Juan in America and Juan in China. I consider the extensive textual evidence that indicates Linklater’s portrait of a mysterious ‘dragon lady’ was based, in part, on the portrait of Lai Choi San in Lilius’s I Sailed with Chinese Pirates (1930). My analysis looks at different relationships between Linklater’s adaptation of the ‘Chinese pirate woman’ and his parodies of Byron’s Don Juan in both novels. The argument is that her significance changes, as her relationship to the target of Linklater’s satire changes. Linklater’s earlier novel, published in 1931, targets American materialism against the backdrop of the depression. The sequel, published before the onset of World War II, deploys the ‘Chinese pirate woman’ as part of an argument against British intervention in irredeemable conflicts in Asia and the continent. Broadly, my chapter is a case study into a paradox: how Linklater’s highly stylised use of intertextuality conforms with Linda Hutcheon and Ryszard Nycz’s analysis of parody as having a ‘constructive function’: in this case, Linklater seeks to revivify Byron’s adventure-romance as a meaningful discourse in post-World War I Europe and America, and yet, in positioning a ‘Chinese pirate woman’ in relation to an English romance, he dislocates her, making her, in Edward Said’s terms, a concept only meaningful in relation to the West. My chapter is, thus, about the ironies of applying parody within an Orientalist narrative.
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Why is it important?
My chapter offers the first in-depth study of how Aleko Lilius’s ‘Chinese pirate woman’ influenced Eric Linklater’s parodic fictions. By tracing her transformation across Juan in America and Juan in China, I reveal how her significance shifts in response to Linklater’s satirical targets—American materialism and British interventionism. This analysis expands discussions on intertextuality, parody, and Orientalism, engaging with Linda Hutcheon, Ryszard Nycz, and Edward Said. Scholars of modernist literature, transnational influences, and colonial discourse will find it valuable for understanding the complexities of parody in interwar fiction.
Perspectives
I find this chapter particularly exciting because it uncovers a previously overlooked intertextual link between Aleko Lilius’s I Sailed with Chinese Pirates and Eric Linklater’s parodic fictions. Exploring how Linklater repurposes the ‘Chinese pirate woman’ within shifting satirical frameworks deepens our understanding of parody’s paradoxical role—both revitalizing literary traditions and reinforcing Orientalist constructs. This study speaks to broader questions of literary adaptation, cultural translation, and political critique, making it a compelling case study for scholars of modernism, interwar literature, and colonial discourse.
Charles Lowe
United International College
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This page is a summary of: The Dragon Lady: a Chinese Pirate Woman in Eric Linklater’s Byronic Parodies, February 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004723832_006.
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