Misty poetry

Misty poetry
(Menglongshi)
Also translated ‘obscure poetry,’ Menglongshi was one of the most controversial phenomena on the Chinese literary scene in the post-Mao era. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, a group of young poets who had experienced suffering and disillusionment during the Cultural Revolution wrote poems that were distinctively different from the socialist realist style prevailing during the Mao era. Symbolically subtle and thematically iconoclastic and polysemous, these poems are novel in images and bold in self-expression. Although the term menglongshi has been generally used to refer to them, it does not properly characterize their diversified poetry. Menglongshi was first used by Zhang Ming in 1980 to criticize the newly rising poetic style as obscure and inappropriate; similar criticism had appeared the year before which condemned the poetry as indulging in individualism and betraying the social responsibilities of intellectuals. Defence of the menglong poetry came immediately from different generations of Chinese intellectuals, including articles by Sun Shaozhen, Xie Mian, Xu Jingya and Ai Qing.
The supporters saw in menglongshi a strong call for humanism and an insuppressible pursuit of individual freedom, both direct reactions to the Cultural Revolution. They also applauded the refreshing aesthetic principles asserted by these poets, who opposed the didactic and political literary theories that governed Chinese poetry in earlier decades. The rise of menglongshi and the five-year debate over it exerted considerable impact on the intellectual discourse in the PRC and gave new direction to freestyle poetry. The best-known menglong poets include Bei Dao, Shu Ting, Gu Cheng, Jiang He, Yang Lian and Meng Ke.
Chen, Xiaomei (1991). ‘Misunderstanding Western Modernism: The Menglong Movement in Post-Mao China’. Representations 35 (Summer): 143–63.
Yeh, Michelle (2003). ‘Misty Poetry’. In Joshua Mostow (ed.) and Kirk A.Denton (China section, ed.), Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literatures. New York: Columbia University Press, 520–6.
QIU PEIPEI

Encyclopedia of contemporary Chinese culture. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • poetry — Reflecting China’s rapidly changing political, social and cultural topography at the end of the twentieth century, poetry too has experienced a dazzling and fast paced transformation in both thematic concern and aesthetic orientation. The… …   Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

  • Misty Copeland — Born September 10, 1982 (1982 09 10) (age 29) Kansas City, Missouri, United States Residence New York City, United States Nationality American Ethnicity …   Wikipedia

  • Misty Poets — The Misty Poets (Chinese: 朦胧诗人; pinyin: Ménglóng Shīrén) are a group of 20th century Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.[1][2] T …   Wikipedia

  • Poetry — This article is about the art form. For other uses, see Poetry (disambiguation). Literature Major forms Novel · Poem · Drama Short story · Novella …   Wikipedia

  • List of poetry groups and movements — Poetry groups and movements or schools may be self identified by the poets that form them or defined by critics who see unifying characteristics of a body of work by more than one poet. To be a school a group of poets must share a common style or …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese poetry — Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese,… …   Wikipedia

  • Confessional poetry — emphasizes the intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet s personal life, such as in poems about mental illness, sexuality, and despondence. The confessionalist label was applied to a number of poets of the 1950s …   Wikipedia

  • Martian poetry — For poetry dealing with Martians or other extraterrestrials see Aliens in Poetry Martian poetry was a minor movement in British poetry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Poets most closely associated with it are Craig Raine and Christopher Reid.… …   Wikipedia

  • The New American Poetry 1945–1960 —   Author(s) Donald Allen (editor) …   Wikipedia

  • Modernist poetry — refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature in the English language, but the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”