New Poetry Collection and the Emergence of Chinese New Poetry

Author: Jiang Tao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: "The 'New Poetry Collection' and the Emergence of New Chinese Poetry" and "The Poetic Space of Modern Chinese" were both written by the two young Ph.D. candidates Jiang Tao and Zhang Taozhou, originating from their respective doctoral dissertations. Among them, "The 'New Poetry Collection' and the Emergence of New Chinese Poetry" has been selected as one of the National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations, earning praise from the selection experts for its novel perspective and solid arguments. This work explores the sociocultural implications of the "emergence and establishment of new poetry" by examining various aspects of early "new poetry collections," including their publication, dissemination, compilation, self-positioning, reception, and historical evaluation. Based on a description of the publishing, circulation, and reading conditions of early "new poetry collections," the author discusses the establishment of the "emergence space" of new poetry and the activities involved in the pursuit of its "self-sufficiency," such as the mobilization of readers, the differentiation of the poetic community, and the shaping of reading conventions. Particularly noteworthy is the innovation in the research methodology of this book. It avoids the conventional mode of moving from idea to idea or from text to text, introducing discussions on external factors—such as publication, printing, readership, collection compilation, and the construction of literary history—into the historical scene of the emergence of new poetry. By incorporating "empirical research" and sociological elements into general historical and aesthetic studies, the research not only includes the text itself but also the roles of literary activities within the literary system, such as the production, sales, reception, and processing of texts. As Professor Wen Rumin pointed out in the preface to this book: "This work questions the 'common-sense' historical imagination of the emergence of new poetry that has been acquired so far. This questioning enriches our understanding of the complexity of the historical process of the emergence of modern literature and may inspire us to reflect on the conventional research paradigms, opening up multiple possibilities and new perspectives for the writing of literary history." Indeed, "The 'New Poetry Collection' and the Emergence of New Chinese Poetry" reveals some signs of changes in the concepts and paradigms of new poetry research in the face of significant sociocultural shifts. In recent years, the introduction of new approaches in new poetry research has demonstrated a tendency to transcend existing paradigms, such as the examination of the relationships between new poetry schools, magazine media, and urban culture, close readings from a linguistic form perspective, and the analysis and clarification of the process of classicization of new poetry, among others, all of which have expanded the research horizon from different angles. Therefore, how to extract new perspectives and research questions based on existing paradigms has become the key to revitalizing new poetry research. This book takes early "new poetry collections" as its research subject, emphasizing the examination of the historical proposition of "the emergence of new poetry" through the study of the publishing, reception, compilation, and historical evaluation of these collections. From an overall sociocultural perspective, it strives to return to the original scene and present the tangled and chaotic historical manifestations synchronically, thereby questioning the general linear historical imagination of new poetry.