Chinese Voice In Modern American Poetry

The world today is characterized by an ever-growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. With the development of globalization cultural crash and syncretism has become one of the major focuses in academic studies. This thesis is mainly concerned with a subject that has been increasingly emphasized in the field of in intercultural communication and comparative literature, i.e. acculturation.This thesis explores the issue of acculturation of classical Chinese poetry in modern American poetry based on analyses of individual cultural and literary phenomena or facts. Through the analyses this thesis aims to show: (1) the possibility of one culture to absorb either the surface structure or the deep structure of another culture and the necessity of cultural exchange and borrowing in developing one's own culture; (2) the complex nature of acculturation– it is not a simple process of imitation or duplication; rather, it is a process of cultural transformation based on cultural needs and expectations.The first chapter and the second chapter of the thesis provide a general survey of the acculturation of classical Chinese poetry in modern American poetry, including a description of important backgrounds, four stages of development, and major intermedia in the acculturation process. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 discuss the acculturation of classical Chinese poetry in modern American poetry from different perspectives. The analyses are carried out by way of exemplification and contrasts. Chapter 3 is an analysis of inspirations from the Chinese written language (i.e. the Chinese character and syntax). Chapter 4 explores four Chinese poetic discourses (i.e. shiyin, shiyou, guiyuan and ganhuai discourses) fused in American poems. Chapter 5 discusses the absorption of principal Chinese poetic thoughts (Daoist thought and Chan thought) in modern American poetry.