The Poetic Strategies And Historical Relevance Of "Jiuye" Poets(1937-1949)

This thesis focuses on the poetic strategies and their historical relevance of "Jiuye" poets in1937-1949, to find their historical condition and awareness when they develop some important poetic strategies.The Preamble reflects on the methods of recent researches on poetry of1940s, and then bring forward our own methods. The main mode of current research on this area is to refer to, and appeal to, the "Modernism" and "Modernity" discourse of western world. This mode overstates the "influence" of western poets on Chinese poets, and identifies itself with the aims of literary modernity and Modernism of western poets. Its disadvantages include:ignoring the subjectivity of Chinese poets and the historical context of their works; over-expanding the extension of the notion "Modernism"; overstating the modernity of "Jiuye" poets, etc. To redress the mistake of "de-historization" of current researches, we incline to put these poets "back into history" i.e., to read their works in the context of social and individual history; and to estimate their strategies in the context of literary tradition.Chapter One analyzes the formation of "Jiuye" poets from a historical angle. Its formation derives from the pressure of the dominant of literature in1940s, i.e.,"People’s Literature". The colony of Left-wing writers became bigger and bigger in the late1940s, and the claims of "Revolutionary Realism" and "Literary Popularization" domain the literary society of China. So the "Dominant" began to view every trend besides itself as "heterodoxy" and tried to beat or incorporate the later. So "Jiuye" poets, as "heterodoxy", got together to preserve themselves.Chapter Two discusses the new styles developed by "Jiuye" poets. The historical crisis and the pressure of real world make these poets’inner world open to the outsider world, which transforms their lyric styles. Xindi’s style reveals the "metamorphosis" of style driven by the pressure of outsider world. He develops a kind of "un-lyric lyric" and historical and moral awareness. In the late1940s, he tried to blend himself into "mass’and to appeal to "action", which dissolves the engine of his creation. Influenced by Christianity, Mudan overthrows the hypothesis about history and the national development of his "New Lyric" project. The belief in Christianity and the "Obsession with China" fight each other in his mind, which makes his poetry quite gloom and full of paradoxes. Du Yunxie develops a kind of light verse which is anti-lyric and anti-sentimental. He treats serious subject with light tone, ironic strain and delicate metaphor. However, the writing of light verse conflict with the historical circumstance; and he couldn’t find a way of dissolve the "weight" of outsider world, which limits the development of his light verse.Chapter Three discuss the tension between "self" and "world" in "Jiuye" poets’s works, which differentiate them from the works of poets in1930s. The portray of deformed self and his pursue for integrity in Mudan’s poetry derives from Plato and Christianity, But the modernity of this "self" should be understood in its relevance with modern Chinese history. There is an antinomy between "strange self" and "strange world" in Chen Jingrong’s poetry, which aims to reveal the frightfulness and alienation of urban life. Hang Yuehe’s Poetry materialize the dissolving of the tension between "self" and "world". When he tries to represent the grand history and "New World", the Utopian ideas anaesthetize his sensibility and reason, making his artistic understanding descend.Chapter Four discusses tow kinds of temporary notions in "Jiuye" poets’ works and the historical consciousness behind them. Tangshi’s poetry Time and banner reveals Marxist’s Historism. He expect a historical revolution which could rescue the humiliated and gloom history of China, while ignoring the consideration of moral attitude and artistic exploration. Mudan criticizes the historical notions of determinism and topples the temporary archetype behind them. Time in his poetry is not linearly progressive, but dragged down by the force of "Now". His representation of Time and history serves as kinds of "historical testimony".Chapter Five analyzes the creative metaphor of "Jiuye" poetry. The characteristics of metaphor are related the form of poets’Weltanschauung. Facing the historical crisis, Xindi gives up those metaphors which reveal the harmony of world, turning to some creative metaphor which reveals the tension between human and world. The tension of Mudan’s metaphor represents the historical pressure he confronts, which is a result of interaction between the severe circumstance and his his anti-historical thoughts. The tensional metaphors of Mudan reveal sufficiently the paradox of the real world. The emergence of creative metaphor in "Jiuye" poetry serves as a landmark in the development of modern Chinese poetry, and those metaphors renovate the contact between language and world, exhibiting the contribution of modern Chinese poetry to the linguistic advancement of modern Chinese literature.The contribution of "Jiuye" poets is manifested in how they reply to the change of history and the pressure of reality effectively, refreshing the connection between language and world. They defy the dominant literary tendency in which the language and icon becomes more and more rigidified, and they renew our understanding of being by exciting the vigor of language.