Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1077844966
Author
Lu, Weiping.
Title
Thomas Hardy and Xu Zhimo : a study of poetic influence
Degree
Graduate Programme in English.
Ph. D. -- York University, 1995
Publisher
1995.
Description
viii, 577 leaves
Notes
Typescript.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 560-577).
Microfiche.1995.7 microfiches ; 11 x 15 cm.
Abstract
This study, as the first systematic research of the poetic influence of Thomas Hardy on Xu Zhimo, is composed of five parts: introduction, analysis of necessary conditions for poetic influence, verification of positive poetic influence, confirmation of negative poetic influence, and conclusion. Part one introduces one of Xu's reminiscent essays, in which he recalls his visit to Max Gate in 1925, and also gives a brief survey of contemporary theory of influence, including Harold Bloom's tetralogy on poetic influence and Goran Hermeren's philosophical treatise on influence in art and literature, in which dialectical terms such as positive and negative influence, influence in the narrow sense ("genuine influence") and influence in the wide sense are introduced and defined. Part two analyzes social, ideological, biographical, and textual conditions for poetic influence in four chapters. Chapter 1 studies China's successive attempts at Westernization, which culminated, on the cultural level, in the 1917 Literary Revolution. Chapter 2 contrasts and compares the Confucian notions of learning and self-cultivation with modern Western concepts of originality and individualism. The two subsequent chapters examine essential biographical and textual evidence for Hardy's poetic influence on Xu Zhimo. Part three presents verification of positive poetic influence. Of the three chapters in this part, Chapter 1 explores the two poets' philosophical belief in evolutionary meliorism, Chapter 2 discusses Xu's absorption of Hardy's cosmic outlook, and Chapter 3 studies the younger poet's imitation of Hardy's poetic techniques. Part four presents confirmation of negative poetic influence. In the two chapters in this part, the first focuses on Xu's revisionary "swerve" away from Hardy's narrative poetry, while the second demonstrates in detail the two poets' different lyric charms: the ephebe's simple idealism versus the precursor's satirical pessimism. The conclusion examines the argument for Hardy's genuine poetic influence on Xu Zhimo. Special attention in this part is given to the discussion of Hardy's indirect contribution to modern Chinese poetry through Xu Zhimo's creative, revisionary assimilation of Hardy's poetic form and aesthetic belief.
Subject
Xu, Zhimo, 1897-1931 Criticism and interpretation.
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 Influence.
ISBN
0315995785
9780315995789