The Chinese Lyric Sequence: Poems, Paintings, Anthologies

by Joseph R Allen

Overview

The approach of this study is essentially a form of structural, or perhaps “constructural,” semiotics; it examines what holds the literary text together in the face of its propensity to unravel. Specifically, it looks at a nearly invisible Chinese literary form in a comparative perspective by bringing one type of artifactuality (academic inquiry in English) to bear on a very different sort (Chinese lyricism), thereby illuminating the dynamics of the latter in the cross-light of the former. This is in no way a dismissal of indigenous, culturally intimate ways of knowing the works, nor is it a denial of the cross-current of contradiction and divergence that is always working against the form, always preventing a final interpretation. The aim of this study is to find a middle ground where this methodological cross-light will show the aesthetic whole, along with its inherent disruptions, as a construction that fits patterns of meaning that are culturally and historically bound, even if unstated: the Chinese lyric sequence.

This is an important book for scholars studying Chinese literature, comparative literature, world literature, and poetry-painting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621964780
Publisher:	Cambria Press
Publication date:	03/25/2020
Series:	Cambria Sinophone World
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Joseph R. Allen is Professor Emeritus of Chinese literature and cultural studies and Founding Chair of the Department Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Trained in classical Chinese poetry at University of Washington, Seattle, Dr. Allen's literary research includes In the Voice of Others: Music Bureau Poetry (1992), and the editing with additional translations of Arthur Waley's Book of Songs (1996). He has also translated and written about modern and contemporary Chinese poetry, including Forbidden Games and Video Poems: The Poetry of Yang Mu and Lo Ch'ing (1993) and Sea of Dreams: The Selected Writings of Gu Cheng (2005). His study of the semiotics of urban space, Taipei: City of Displacements (2012), won the 2014 Levenson Prize in Chinese Studies, awarded by the Association of Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

Preface

Chapter 1: The Chinese Lyric Sequence in a Comparative Perspective

Chapter 2: Decades in The Book of Songs

Chapter 3: Nines in The Elegies of Chu

Chapter 4: Selections and Collections in the Six Dynasties

Chapter 5: The Four Seasons and the Twelve Months

Chapter 6: Du Fu’s Metapoem

Chapter 7: Eight Views

Epilogue: In Significant Numbers

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

“This book is the first attempt to discuss, in both theoretical and concrete terms, the historical development of an important but decidedly understudied Chinese literary form, the poetic sequence (zushi). The poetic sequence is an important form in the Chinese tradition, as it allows the poet to build a complex argument in poetic form about an issue, an experience, or a phenomenon in life. This book is the first English-language monograph to discuss the poetic sequence in the context of the historical development of this art form as a whole, and the connection made between the poetic sequence and album leaves is thought-provoking. Each chapter contains many inspired and inspiring analyses of individual texts. The writing is lucid and accessible, and the book is a great pleasure to read from beginning to end. This book will be invaluable for both specialists in the field of Chinese literature and general readers who are interested in Chinese poetry and aesthetics; it will be essential reading for scholars and students in classical Chinese literature, cultural history, and art history.” —Tian Xiaofei, Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University

“One of the great divides in Chinese literary scholarship is what constitutes ‘theory.’ If one is working on modern literature exclusively, there is a tendency to borrow and apply Western theories wholesale, not least because of the extensive influence of the West on China after the First Opium War. There is also the issue of identifying and reading Chinese works of theory, which are not constituted as they are in the West, usually affiliated with reading specific texts rather than generalizations of abstractions. Professor Allen takes up the issues of lyric sequence from the Chinese perspective, rather than imposing the norms of the Indo-European traditions upon it. As he does this, he uses language and explanations that non-specialists can understand. Professor Allen gives us a sweeping experience of lyric sequences and their strategies from the very beginning of the Chinese tradition to the present day. He has made a breakthrough in the field of poetry as it relates to painting studies and has recharged our sense of the visuality of Chinese poetry. This is certainly carried through in his analyses.” —Dore J. Levy, Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies, Brown University

From the Publisher