The Premodern Western Tradition Of Panpoetry: A Comparative Study Taking The Related Traditions Of Ancient Chinese Poertry As A Frame Of Reference

As the title shows, this is a dissertation on comparative literature stressing the aspect of Chinses literary tradition in relation to Western literary tradition. The focus of the dissertation is on the premodern Western tradition of panpoetry, a type of phenomena which survived over 2,000 years. In the discussion, the dissertation introduces the related traditions of ancient Chinese poetry as a frame of reference, and then establishes a Chinses-Western comparative context. This dissertation attempts to clarify the content of panpoetry at three levels: poetic conception, poetic theory and poetic practice. Their respective relationships are then discussed followed by an overall academic analysis of the tradition.The text of the dissertation consists of the preface and three chapters. The preface mainly explains the title: The Premodern Western Tradition of Panpoetry:a Comparative Study Taking the Related Traditions of Ancient Chinese Poertry as a Frame of Reference. Chapterâ… discusses the phenomenon of panpoetry at a conceptual level in the Chinese-Western context. Chapterâ…¡discusses the phenomenon of panpoetry at the level of theory and practice in this context. Chapterâ…¢ gives an overall appraisal of the premodern Western tradition of panpoetry. The coining of the term "panpoetry" is founded in its ability to catch and clarify the key dimension of premodern Western poetry. This dissertation also attempts to take a position on three research types of problems derived from panpoetry: on Western poetry, on Chinese and Western poetry comparision, and on fundamental poetic theory. The author hopes that these foundational work can make valuable contributions to later reseach on poetry.