INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 THE PROSE POEM AND AESTHETIC INSIGHT: LU XUN’S YECAO DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Nicholas A. Kaldis, M.A. The Ohio State University 1998 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Kirk Denton, Adviser Professor Xiaomei Chen Vl I / -------- - Adviser Professor Walter A. Davis Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures ÜHI Number: 9900853 UMI Microform 9900853 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT This is a study of the prose poem collection Yecao {Wild Grass), first published in 1927 by the foremost Chinese writer of the twentieth century, Lu Xun (1881-1936). This dissertation fills a significant gap in Lu Xun scholarship, by providing a much-needed full-length English-language study of this important work. An equally important feature of the dissertation is its elaboration and application of an aesthetic theory and praxis that are best suited for studying works of literature such as Yecao. This will aid scholars both in their future studies of modern Chinese poetry, and in their classroom teaching of Chinese literature. An important purpose of this dissertation is to provide the first English- language collection of close readings of each poem. This is the most significant part of the dissertation, and the core of my method, which involves working through each poem, in a series of close readings, to reveal the complex network of meanings and emotions that are contained in V'ecao’s poetic language and imagery. These readings do not in any way neglect the work's original historical context, they provide the reader with a way of understanding the interrelationship between historical events and the poet’s unconscious, as it is manifested in each poem. In this way, I reveal the historical significance of these highly personal and symbolic poems without reducing their language, imagery, and emotional force to a mere index of past social and historical phenomena. Through this approach, I fulfill another, more general goal; to show how literary images -in poetry or fiction- can embody the complex dynamic connections between lived experience and the unconscious of the individual. This dissertation thereby demonstrates that attunement to the historical and psychological density that is contained within the literary image is the key to both a rigorous understanding of literary works and to a more comprehensive notion of subjectivity. Such an attunement is also a requisite to perceiving the full social relevance of literary texts, and the indispensable basis of a classroom pedagogy for studying the literatures of other cultures. Ill Dedicated to Shu-Mln IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Kirk Denton for introducing me to modern Chinese literature through his vigorous, open-ended method of instruction and guidance. The contribution he has made to my education is irreplaceable. I also thank Chen Xiaomei for her expert advice and especially for her seminars. She makes her classroom that rare thing in education, a place for taking risks. David Ch’en, Yan-shuan Lao, William Tyler, Debbie Knicely, Brad, Eve Catus, Eugene Holland, Michel Hockx, Bonnie McDougall, Bai Di, and others have provided invaluable knowledge, support, guidance through fearsome bureaucratic intricacies, and critical readings of the text. Seminars with Bai Di, Yu Hongyuan, He Dajiang, Xu Gang, and many other classmates made up the golden years of my education. I thank Sensei Bill Evans, for teaching me a new kind of bodily attitude. I thank my parents for teaching me a love for books and ideas that has taken me far beyond what they had in mind, and Pete, Julie, Maria, and Todd for their constant generosity. My deepest gratitude is reserved for Mac Davis, who continues to embody the highest forms of teaching, friendship, karate, intellectual rigor, introspection, and an “insolent grace." VITA December 6, 1961................................ Born, Eau Claire, Wisconsin 1984 B.A. English Literature, Ohio University 1986......................................................... M.A. English Literature, Purdue University 1990.........................................................M.A. Chinese Uterature, The Ohio State 1989-1990 & 1991-1996...................Graduate Teaching Assistant, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS TRANSLATJONS Cheng Fangwu. “The Mission of the New Literature.” in Kirk A. Denton, ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writinqs on Literature 1893-1945- Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996, 247-54. Wang Hui. “PRC Cultural Studies and Cultural Criticism in the 1990s." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. Vol 6 no 1 (Spring 1998). 239-51. VI ART.IÇLES “Huang Jianxin’s Cuowei : Aesthetic Understanding and/of the Subject of Culture." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. FIELD OF STUDY Major Field: East Asian Languages and Literatures. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS Paga Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii Dedication..................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... v Vita ................................................................................................................................. vi Chapters: Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 1. Methodology......................................................................................................25 1.1 Review of Yecao Scholarship.....................................................................25 1.1.1 Biographical/Historical Approaches ..................................... 25 1.1.2 Private-Aesthetic Approaches............................................... 32 1.2 Methodology: Theory, Praxis, Relevance...........................................40 2. In Search of Modern Form: The Prose Poem............................................... 59 2.1 Prose Poetry: A General Introduction..................................................59 2.2 Poetic Antecedents: Premodern Literary Roots Yecaoof ........... 66 2.3 Poetic Antecedents: Western Literary Roots ofYecao ................. 71 2.4 Early Modern Chinese Prose Poetry: A Condensed History 91 2.5 Interlude: “Ziyan ziyu:” Lu Xun and the Prose Poem.......................97 3. Lived and Literary Existence: Lu Xun’s Yecao Period............................... 102 3.1 The Historical Context........................................................................... 102 3.2 Art, Thought, and Existence: Lu Xun’s Yecao Period....................118 VIII 4. Close Readings ................................................................................................. 147 4.1 TicI.............................................................................................................147 4.2 Qiuye.......................................................................................................157 4.3 Ylng de gaoble.......................................................................................165 4.4 Qiuqizhe................................................................................................ 172 4.5 Wode shllian .............................................................................................178 4.6 Fuchou ..................................................................................................... 180 4.7 Fuchou (qi er)...........................................................................................187 4.8 Xlwang ..................................................................................................... 192 4.9 Xue.......................................................................................................