On The Poetic Revolution Of Obscure Poem

Although Obscure Poem has been past for thirty years, it is still an inevitable topic in mention of Chinese modern poetry. It is difficult to imagine what contemporary poetry would be like without the poetic revolution of Obscure Poem, even though Chinese modern poetry has greatly changed after that. The entire movement of Obscure Poem only lasted for four years from the very beginning when Bei Dao published Answer in Poetry Periodical, which acted as an official approval to the end when Xu Jingya criticized himself in public. This argument between the supporters represented by Xie Mian, Sun Shaozhen, Xu Jingya and the protesters represented by Zhang Ming, Ai Qing and so on involved with many critics as well as some famous poets like Bian Zhilin and Zang Kejia. What kind of force promoted this argument? Why did it lead to great social influence? What kind of standpoint did critics hold at that time? What about Obscure poets’attitude? How did the argument influence Obscure Poem itself and how did it work on Chinese modern poetry. These aspects are my research’s key points.The first chapter is a historical retrospect of the Obscure Poem argument in order to provide following dissertation with an vivid and comprehensive field. In Octorber1979, Gong Liu firstly pointed out that Gu Cheng’s poems showed "a new topic". In May1980, Xie Mian published his famous article. As time came to April1980, Zhang Ming’s opinion ignited the argument and it finally reached its climax after continual debates. And Xu Jingya’s criticism of himself in1983signified the end of the argument.The second chapter is to interpret the standpoints of Obscure Poetry’s supporters’ and protesters’ as well as poets’ attitude and explore the incisive reason of the argument. In the argument which lasted for four years and influenced a lot, many debates were not about poetry itself owing to the historical environment at that time. Poetic argument which should have unfolded around aesthestic problems actually turned to politics criticism. In addition to this, misunderstanding between two sides made the argument a fight for authority and status and worsened the situation in a sense.The third chapter is about the subsequent influence of Obscure Poem argument. Although Xu Jingya’s public criticism signified the end of it, Obscure Poem had gone to a wider social field instead of restricting itself in poets’and critics’horizons. Many young people started to imitate Shu Ting’and Bei Dao’s works and the poets who used to be criticized became idols of the time. As slogans like " Pass Shu Ting, pass Bei Dao" appeared, the Third Generation immediately took place of the Obscure poets and Obscure Poem fade out of historical stage from then on.The last chapter dissertates the relations between Obscure Poem and modernism. The attention aroused by Obscure Poem among readers and critics actually owed to its revolution in techniques of expression. Negativeness in thought, obscure in emotional tone and especially new techniques’application like symbolism, synaesthesia, montage and stream of consciousness showed great difference from poetic tradition. These changes in some critics’viewpoints were following western modernism. Well, were they right? This chapter tries to figure out whether Obscure Poem related to western modernism, it was the development of native poetic tradition or something poisonous from western capitalism.