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 evaluation committee 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 research methodology. It avoids the conventional mode of moving from idea to idea or text to text, introducing discussions on external factors—such as publication, printing, readership, collection compilation, and the construction of literary history—into the historical context 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 texts themselves but also the roles of literary activities within the literary system, such as the production, distribution, reception, and processing of texts. As Professor Wen Rumin pointed out in his preface to this book: "This work challenges the 'common-sense' historical imagination of the emergence of new poetry that has been previously acquired. This challenge enriches our understanding of the complexity of the historical process of the emergence of modern literature and may inspire us to reflect on conventional research paradigms, opening up multiple possibilities and new perspectives for writing 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 social and cultural shifts. In recent years, the introduction of new approaches in new poetry research has shown a tendency to transcend existing paradigms. For example, the examination of the relationships between new poetry schools, magazine media, and urban culture, close readings from a linguistic perspective, the analysis and clarification of the process of classicization of new poetry, and so on, have all expanded the research horizons 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, focusing on the examination of their publication, reception, compilation, and historical evaluation to rigorously scrutinize the historical proposition of "the emergence of new poetry." From an overall sociocultural perspective, it attempts to return to the original scene and present the tangled and chaotic historical appearances from a synchronic angle, thereby questioning the general linear historical imagination of new poetry.