Painting In Poetry, Poetry In Painting

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) is one of the exotic flowers in20thAmerican poetryknown later by the public as one of the great artists and writers in the history ofhumankind. His use of bright, colorful and sensuous images brings readers aestheticpleasure and his employment of conceits or philosophical concerns enlightens people tofind one’s place in the chaos of the reality. His poetry is like an unexhausted mineralwhich brings us surprises now and then.There have already been critics at home and abroad interpreting Wallace Stevensand his poems from the internal or external perspectives to illustrate his poetics or theartistic features of his poetry. The effort here is contributed to interpreting the poemsfrom modern painting and poetry theories to reveal its modern painting characteristicsand the experimental features.Stevens once had made commentaries on the relation between painting and poetryas the necessary dialogue between our inner and outer world. This thesis attempts toreveal the characteristics of modern painting in Wallace Stevens’s poems through thecomparison with modern painting theories, especially Impressionism, Dadaism,Surrealism and Cubism so that we can conclude that his poems not only resemblemodern painting in forms and expressive techniques but the contents and experimentalfeatures as well.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction whichconsiders the basic research questions, the significance of the study, literature reviewand the methodologies for the study. Chapter Two provides the relevant theoreticalfoundations for the present study, with the focus on the theories of modern poetry and modern painting. Chapter Three analyzes the specific application of modern paintingtechniques in Wallace Stevens’s poems, mainly concerning the color element,techniques of perspective and method of collage, from the perspectives of form andexpressive techniques. Chapter Four deals with the emphasis of the conception inWallace Stevens’s poems. By comparison with the Dadaist and Surrealist paintings, thethesis focuses on the importance of the titles in understanding both Wallace Stevens’spoems and the Dadaist and Surrealist paintings. Besides, Chapter Four explores thedeconstruction and reconstruction of reality in both Wallace Stevens’s poems and theCubist paintings. Chapter Five is the concluding section, where main findings andcontributions of Wallace Stevens’s poems as well as the experimental features aresummed up.To sum up, Wallace Stevens’s poems possess the features of modern paintingtechniques and experimental ideas. The revelation of modern painting techniques inWallace Stevens’s poems can provide us with a new angle and facilitate theunderstanding and appreciation of Wallace Stevens’s poems. It also enhances the studyof Wallace Stevens in China and highlights the experimental features in WallaceStevens’s poems.