| Bian Zhilin (1910--) is a famous modern Chinese poet. For a long period of time up to the 1980s, his poetry, due to its artistic uniqueness and to the poet's alienation from politics, had not been widely recognized and appreciated. In the past two decades, more and more scholars and critics have realized the artistic achievement of his poetry. There have been important and valuable studies on Bian's works. Upon the foundation of recent scholarship, this dissertation goes deeper and more comprehensively investigating Bian's poetic art; it also explores the influences on Bian from modern Western writers, ancient Chinese poets and thinkers, and Bian's contemporaries including teachers and fellow writers.;The second part explains the influences on Bian from various sources: Western writers including Andre Gide of France (virtually no attention has been paid to Gide's impact on Bian so far); teachers and friends of Bian including Fei Ming, who played a key role in forming Bian's ideology and artistic concepts; and the major traditional Chinese schools of thought: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.;In the concluding chapter, Bian's influences on contemporary Chinese writers are studied; it also attempts to sum up his outstanding contributions to the development of modern Chinese poetry.;The first part of this dissertation analyzes and comments on Bian's rich imagery, diversified syntax, delicate texture, rigorous prosody and dexterous musicality. It also points out Bian's lyrical strategy of coolness and objectivity which is guided by the concept of "relativity"; and this strategy develops into a unique dialogue tone. |
