English Metaphysical and Mid-Late Tang Poetry: A Baroque Comparison

• Author / Creator

  Wang, Pengfei

• As the title indicates, the thesis is a comparative analysis of the Metaphysical poets and Mid-late Tang poets, under the general style of the Baroque. The scholarship on this topic is very minimal because only recently with the study of James Liu on Li Shangyin and the Baroque we have learned to think of Tang poets as Baroque poets. The same goes for the Metaphysical poets who were so-called by Dr. Johnson but who can also be grouped under the Baroque, because they are seventeenth century poets. My definition of Baroque, however, does not conform to that of James Liu who uses the term historically, and by comparing “baroque” terms that metaphysical poets have in common with Tang poets. My concept of baroque is based on Nietzsche’s definition of “baroque” as a poetic ”style” that can be found in any period, and in any place and any country: in the West as well as in the East, in England and in China. Nietzsche’s definition of baroque is associated with a notion of art as allegory which is in opposition to traditional poetic forms that that are defined as symbolic. According to Nietzsche, we have allegorical, or Baroque poetry, when traditional, symbolic forms are disrupted or are in decline. An analysis of Baroque poetry, therefore, cannot be based on a symbolic approach but on an allegorical reading that is attentive at the ways in which the poetry is displaced from traditional forms. The three metaphysical poets I have chosen are John Donne, Andrew Marvell and John Crashaw and for each poet I discuss three of their poems. For the Mid-late Tang poets I have chosen three poems of Meng Jiao, Li He and Li Shangyin. The thesis is divided in an Introduction, a first chapter on Metaphysical poets, a second chapter on Mid-late Tang poets, the third chapter is on a comparative analysis of Metaphysical and Mid-late Tang conceits. A brief conclusion and a Bibliography conclude the thesis.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • metaphysical poetry
  • mid-late Tang poetry
  • baroque
  • comparison

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3F766P7D

• License

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