[Wgcp-whc] Meeting Minutes: Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets
Nancy Kuhl
nancy.kuhl at yale.edu
Mon Apr 23 11:36:34 EDT 2007
All-
Since Richard wasnt able to join us on Friday, I will attempt a short
report on our lively discussion of Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets.
Though several group members are scholars, translators, and aficionados of
contemporary Chinese poetry, many of us have had little exposure to Chinese
poetry; thus, our readings for Fridays meeting and last weeks historic
reading on campus by eight Chinese poets and their translators provided a
broad introduction to the field. That introduction was enriched during our
meeting by a lengthy discussion of the social, cultural, historical,
political, and aesthetic contexts in which the days readings were written,
read, translated, and studied.
The Chinese poetry experts among us offered a brief history of twentieth
century poetry in China, beginning with a discussion of the official
Maoist verse sanctioned by the state. From this groundwork of proletariat
realism, we went on to discuss the so-called Misty poets of the 1970s and
1980s, some of whose work is included in Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets.
The term Misty refers to work that stood in opposition to the state
sanctioned poetry of the period and which was thought to be more opaque
than the straightforward and plain style of the official verse. These poets
explored emotional and intellectual subject matter, using poetry as a means
of articulating individual, internal experience. The Misty poets influenced
a new generation of poets who continue to work outside the realist
aesthetic that has defined much of the Chinese poetry of the twentieth century.
Turning to the text, we spoke at length about the work of Zhai Yongming.
Yongming is a leading woman poet in China and was among the poets who read
here last week. We focused our discussion on Yongmings early work,
considering the influence of Sylvia Plath and other confessional writers.
Andrea Lingenfelter, who read translations of Yongmings work at the event
last week, distributed copies of her translation of one of Yongmings
central poems, Premonition (called Foreboding in Eight Contemporary
Chinese Poets). The two different translations provided the group with
opportunities to discuss the particulars of Chinese syntax and linguistic
structure.
At out next meeting, poet Xi Chuan will join the group to discuss his work
and that of his fellow poets. A selection of Xi Chuans work is included in
Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets and online at
http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/summer06.html. That meeting will take place
at 3pm on May 4th.
Nancy Kuhl
Nancy Kuhl
Associate Curator, The Yale Collection of American Literature
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
121 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
Phone: 203.432.2966
Fax: 203.432.4047
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