Poetry "(1957-1964) Study

1957 witnessed the funding of Poetry and 1964 its termination. However, this eight-year publication had been significantly marked by a series of works and events which testified the glory and disgrace of Chinese modern poetry. This thesis intends to retrieve the life of this national publication, illustrate its specialties and reveal the function, characteristics and imagery underlying the domain of modern poetry of the said period.Chapter 1 reconstructs the founding of Poetry, which represented a chronology where the poetry had been exhibited in a given time and space, and as well as a logical mix of literature, aesthetics and psychology. At the outset, Poetry had shown its twofold function, i.e. that of culture of and of politics. On one hand, it conformed with the Party Line; on the other hand, it is unofficial and informal.Chapter 2 investigates the editors of Poetry and exhibits the effects on Poetry arising from the conflict between publicity and individuality felt by the editors, by analyzing the psychological and ideological factors (i.e. yearnings,, anxieties, self-solace and deliberation) of the editors as a group, and their collective experience regarding their social life and their lived experience.Chapters 3, 4 and 5 highlight the poetry in its own right. The first two chapters showcase the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957) and "the Great Leap Forward" (1958). Based on the works of Poetry and the poems relevant to the two said political campaigns, these two chapters analyze the ways in which the poems assembled, cohered and acquired referentiality intra-textually and in a wider cultural context. Changes in that formative process provide an effective frame of reference for us to reflect on the losses and gains of the Poetry and socialist literature in a particular time. Chapter 5 presents a sort of review and conclusion. First, the social environment, emotions and functions refracted from the epilogues published in succession can deepen our understanding of the years between 1957 and 1964, and at the same time, mirror the government policy on creative writing. Secondly, it transpires from the findings about the ebb and flow of the Poetry, the activities sponsored by the Poetry and its policy on defining the writing community that the Poetry once struggled to weave 'propaganda' and 'poetic inspiration' into a coherent whole. In a nutshell, this thesis explores production and mutation of the Poetry and illuminates rules of poetic production in that particular time.Chapter 6 draws on the relevant historical data and recollections of the participants, to exhibit the eventfulness of Poetry's publication.Proceeding from empirical research and reconstruction, I see the Poetry during 1957 and 1964 as a magnet for poetry activities, a significant means to spread the message of poetry; it is the executor as well as the victim of ideological policy, it is not only geared toward artistic pursuit, but also politically disciplined. All these variables come to mean that the works left behind go beyond mere literariness, but reflect historical, cultural and social aspects of creative writing.