A study of poetic landscapes in danyings poems 1

A STUDY OF POETIC LANDSCAPES IN DANYING’S POEMS Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Su Jui-Lung, for all of his supports, mentorship, and commitment to this study project over the past 3 years. He is broad-minded and was responsive to my interpretations of modern poetry, and kept me on the right track through the whole project. I also want to thank Danying (Madame Liu Baozhen) for devoting time and efforts in the interviews. Her dedications to modern poetry and graceful attitude toward life impressed me and inspired me in many perspectives. Finally, I would like to express my wholehearted appreciation to my family in Taiwan, and Singapore as well. Without their supports and encouragements, I would not be able to overcome all the pressure and continue my study as a new mother. ! i! ! ii! ! iii! ! iv! Abstract This thesis makes the claim that poetic landscapes in Danying’s poems reflect her cultural nostalgia and her quests for subjectivity. The poetic landscapes indicate Danying’s perceptions of the world and can be seen as an interface where she interprets her cultural nostalgia and her lurking fears of being rootless as an overseas Chinese. The continuous quests for a cultural root and the sense of belonging are implied in the landscape of memory, which is represented in melancholic statements similar to the feminine expressions of “guiyuan”( ) in traditional Chinese literature. Her anxiety about being rootless, on the other hand, is implied in the landscapes of exile where the poetic speakers wonder lonely in the desolate fields or isolated cliffs. The landscapes of body display how Danying recollects her subjectivity by converting body images into natural landscapes. The poetic landscapes, therefore, encapsulate her reconciling with the world and her reconstruction of subjectivity. ! v!  ... iii! ! iv! Abstract This thesis makes the claim that poetic landscapes in Danying’s poems reflect her cultural nostalgia and her quests for subjectivity The poetic landscapes indicate Danying’s perceptions... perceptions of the world and can be seen as an interface where she interprets her cultural nostalgia and her lurking fears of being rootless as an overseas Chinese The continuous quests for a cultural... root and the sense of belonging are implied in the landscape of memory, which is represented in melancholic statements similar to the feminine expressions of “guiyuan”( ) in traditional Chinese