American Modernist Poetry and the Chinese Encounter - by Z Yuejun & S Christie (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This edition documents the growth of interest in modernist and contemporary American poetry by scholars both inside and outside China. While the tradition of Asian-American literature and criticism is well-established, there has been less exposure to how China-based critics have viewed the increasing popularity of canonical and emerging American poetry. The volume uses a variety of approaches to argue a central theme--that the "encounter" of American poetry with contemporary Chinese modernity is occasioning a radical refashioning of not only American perspectives on Chinese culture and values but of the impact of Western values upon the Chinese worldview"--

Book Synopsis

American Modernist Poetry and the Chinese Encounteroffers a framework for understanding the variety of imagined encounters by eight different American poets with their imagined 'Chinese' subject. The method is historical and materialist, insofar as the contributors to the volume read the claims of specific poems alongside the actual and tumultuous changes China faced between 1911 and 1979. Even where specific poems are found to be erroneous, the contributors to the volume suggest that each of the poets attempted to engage their 'Chinese' subject with a degree of commitment that presaged imaginatively China's subsequent dominance. The poems stand as unique artifacts, via proxy and in the English language, for the rise of China in the American imagination. The audience of the volume is international, including the growing number of scholars and graduate students in Chinese universities working on American literature and comparative cultural studies, as well as already established commentators and students in the west.

Review Quotes

About the Author

Stuart Christie; Hong Kong Baptist University Chung Ling; Hong Kong Baptist University Li Jing; Hong Kong Baptist University Lim Lee Ching; SIM University, Singapore Luo Lianggong; Central China Normal University James I. McDougall; American University of Kuwait Christopher A. Shinn; Howard University Su Hui; Central China Normal University Zhang Yuejun;Central South University