Langqiu Zhang

AN EXPLORATION OF METAPOETRY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POETRY IN THE 1980s AND 1990s

The growing introspection of modern poetry nurtures metapoetry. Metapoetry is poets’ exploration of poetry itself; in metapoetry writing, poets demonstrate their attitudes as writers, express and manage their creation anxieties, and reflect on the methodology of creation. In the 1980s and 1990s, this unique consciousness of metapoetry has widely permeated into contemporary Chinese poetry writing. During this period, the exiled poets represented by Bei Dao北島 (1949- ) and Zhang Zao張棗 (1962-2010) equated the dilemma of life with the dilemma of writing and expression and used the creation process as the object of creation in order to transform the ineffable state of existence into an articulable state of poetry and, based on this, convey poetic attitudes and sensibilities. At present, academic attention to and discussion of Chinese metapoetry is highly limited, especially in terms of systematic and in-depth elaboration and analysis. Taking this research gap as a starting point, this study will provide a multi-layered reading of Chinese metapoetry in the 1980s and 1990s, including exploring its potential as a poetic methodology, theory, or genre, outlining its aesthetic form, and examining its achievements and limitations. In this way, this study will complement scholarly understandings of metapoetry and shed light on the further development of contemporary Chinese poetry.

Jun Qian, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University

Joseph Lawson, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University

Langqiu Zhang, ‘試論張棗詩歌中的域外書寫與母國傳統’ (On the Extraterritorial Elements and Chinese Traditions in the Poetry of Zhang Zao). 《湖南第壹師範學院報》 (Journal of Hunan First Normal University), 21:1(2021), 88-93.