Theory Of Yuan Kejia Modern Poetry

Yuan Kejia was an important theoretician of Jiuye Poets Group. In view of all the problems in domestic Parnassus at that time and based on the fully absorption of Western poetry theories and Chinese classical poetics, he put forward the theory of new poetry modernization, of which the intention was to seek a new direction for the development of poetry. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, he continued to improve the framework of this theory. Modernization of new poetry is not only a topic that Yuan pondered throughout his life, but also it is the core of his theory. This paper will mainly discuss about Yuan Kejia’s poetry theory, namely the modernization of new poetry.By reviewing the research status about Yuan’s theory, I find that study in this area was quite scattered, and little attention was put on his poetry criticism theory. Therefore, it is necessary to do a systematic research on Yuan’s poetry theory.This paper can be divided into four chapters. The first chapter mainly probes into the formation of Yuan’s theory. The emergence of Yuan’s theory is not an exception. Based on the foundation of Chinese classical poetry theories, it was also motivated by Western symbolism and the New Criticism. It was induced by poetry creations and theories since Chinese new poetry movement, especially the modern poetries appeared in1940s’poetry Parnassus. The interaction of these factors together promoted the formation of Yuan’s theory. Chapter II and III analyze the two important features of Yuan’s theory, namely the emphasis on the integration of reality, symbol, wit and the dramatization of new poetry. On the thought of poetry ontology, Yuan Kejia strived to break the superstition involved in poetry to defend independent artistic value of poetry. And he pursued a balance between internal and external factors so as to realize the organic synthesis of reality, symbol and wit. The modern poems should also achieve the value of dramatization, which must contain dramatical conflicts but end in harmony. Besides, it has to apply objective and indirect expression to avoid sentiment. The three types of dramatization are introversion, extroversion and poetic drama. Chapter IV will mainly discuss critical theory of Yuan’s poetics. Criticism is a kind of attitude for writing, and the implied attitude determines the direction. With critical theory, the main duty at that time was to consciously break the black cycle of casually writing, randomly reading and irresponsibly commenting in literary world. This critical theory was based on democracy. Criticism is a combination of both science and art. And Yuan Kejia established a series of modem criticism principles from the artistic point of view.For a certain time, Yuan’s poetry theory was not recognized and even misinterpreted. But actually, the theory has developed the sense of dialectics; what’s more, it has transcended boundaries and become a good reference for poetry creation in this new era. It is true that Yuan’s theory is of great value, but his persistent pursuit in literature is more respectable, and sets up a good example for scholars nowadays.