Configurations of Comparative Poetics: Three Perspectives on Western and Chinese Literary Criticism

Zong-qi Cai

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2002

Configurations of Comparative Poetics

Three Perspectives on Western and Chinese Literary Criticism

Zong-qi Cai

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824861964

Overview
Contents

About this book

This comprehensive comparative study of Western and Chinese poetics begins with broad examinations of the two traditions over more than two and a half millennia. From these parallel surveys, a series of important theoretical questions arises: How do Western and Chinese critics conceptualize the nature, origin, and function of literature? What are the fundamental differences, if any, in their ways of thinking about literature? Can we account for these differences by examining Western truth-based and Chinese process-based cosmological paradigms? What are the major distinctive concepts of literature developed within Western and Chinese poetics? How have these concepts impacted the development of the two traditions at various times? After considering a wide range of major critical texts, Configurations of Comparative Poetics presents bold and cogent answers to these questions while shedding light on the distinctive orientations of Western and Chinese poetics.

The second half of the book features four comparative case studies: Plato and Confucius on poetry; Wordsworth and Liu Xie on the creative process; the twentieth-century "Imagists" and their earlier Chinese counterparts on the relationship of the Chinese written character to poetics; and Derrida and the Madhyamika Buddhists on language and onto-theology. The author not only identifies an array of critical concerns shared by Western and Chinese critics, but also differentiates the conceptual models used by each and traces them to cosmological paradigms.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Major Chinese Dynasties Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE: Macrocosmic Structures of Western and Chinese Poetics
1. The Orientation of Western Poetics Conceptualizing Literature as Truth, Untruth, or Antitruth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. The Orientation of Chinese Poetics Conceptualizing Literature as a Harmonizing Process Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3. Early Chinese Worldviews and Concepts of Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4. The Systematics of Western and Chinese Poetics Common Denominators, Di¤erentiae, and Cosmological Paradigms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
PART TWO: Microcosmic Textures of Western and Chinese Poetics
5. Poetics of Harmony Plato and Confucius on Poetry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6. Poetics of Imagination Wordsworth and Liu Xie on Literary Creation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
7. Poetics of Dynamic Force Fenollosa, Pound, and Chinese Critics on the Chinese Written Character Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8. Poetics of Deconstruction Derrida and Mādhyamika Buddhists on Language and Ontotheologies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Epilogue: Reflections Intracultural, Cross-cultural, and Transcultural Perspectives on Western and Chinese Literary Criticism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 377

eBook

Published: December 30, 2001
ISBN: 9780824861964