On Postmodern Humanism Through Robert Lowell And His Poems

Most of postmodern fiction and some of postmodern poetry, in accordance with the postmodern perspective of a denial of objective meaning, indulge themselves in play of words. As a new literary genre in the west, apart from being admired by western men of letters, such an extreme postmodern writing is imitated and preoccupied by some Chinese literati.This kind of vacuum-like writing sparks the debate about whether literature, in particular the writing of poetry, should be directed towards the interests of humanity in the human world. In this argument, the author of the dissertation is prone to argue for the expression of human values of literature and to argue that literature, especially, poetry, even if making the play of words, cannot break away from human life and should involve humanistic thought about human destiny.Serving the humanistic interests of the people wholeheartedly should be, in the author's view, also the goal of world literature. Based on this point of view and with the motive of asserting the importance of humanity in literature the title of this dissertation is determined as"On Postmodern Humanism through Robert Lowell and his Poems". The dissertation adopts the social, cultural and sort of philosophic perspectives of postmodernism and humanism in research of literature. The thesis, taking the research fruits of confessional poetry, mainly Robert Lowell and western humanist tradition, combines the humanistic analysis of Robert Lowell himself and his poems with the brief arguments about postmodernism—the humane and inhuman aspects of it. Postmodernism and humanity are seen to be interactive in the whole thesis.The whole thesis, inclusive of five chapters, is a rich blend of arguments about the subjects of humanism and postmodern humanism and a detailed humanistic analysis of Robert Lowell's life and his poems. Chapter One"Introduction", is a brief introduction to the research achievements already made by the scholars and to the structure of the thesis, meanwhile, putting forward the method and meanings of the research. Chapter Two surveys the western humanist tradition and compares the different thoughts of postmodernists with a depiction of postmodern society. In the first part of the chapter, an analysis is made of the relationships between humanism and religion and between humanism and science.The author considers that humanism can not exclude religion and science as long as they are suitable for the development of economic and spiritual welfares. In reality, religion can adjust the state of minds of people and science is able to push the development of economy which is the most fundamental force of human growth. This is also proved by the history of literature, some with its religious themes and some laying stress on writing techniques which shows the process of human development. Robert Lowell's early poetry is filled with religious humanity and his late poetry is the mixture of humanity and poetry techniques.From the second part it is concluded that postmodern fiction and some poetry, in particular the language poetry, are the art of sheer mimicking the postmodern fragmented state in the texts per se. Other postmodernist poetry exercises the art of resistance or transformation of postmodern society based on the postmodern concept of the rejection of the idea of the objectively'real'.As a typical art of transformation, confessional poetry, alleviating the mental disorder of postmodern man, is a poignant expression of the personal experiences of the poet. Just by reason of the confusion of personal identity of postmodern society caused by Michel Foucault's"the death of subject", Robert Lowell, as a representative poet of confessional poetry, in his famous book Life Studies, poignantly, exposes postmodern self like postmodern humanism of being personal, opening the door for personal poetry, as resistant to postmodern fiction expressing the fragmentation of postmodern society in text itself. The rise of confessional poetry is indicative of postmodernism tolerance of different poetry styles. Because of"being subjective and personal", the central concept of postmodernism, this poetry, it is argued, shows a view of postmodern humanity.The main body of the thesis is Chapter Three and Four, the insight into Lowell's life and his poems mainly extracted from his Life Studies. The first is the humanistic analysis of his life and poems. The key is to explore how Lowell's life and his poems act as a reflection of postmodern humanism: caring about personal predicaments. The second is the evaluation of postmodernism: its humane and inhuman aspects.Chapter Three is made up of three parts:"Political Humanness","Human Emotions", and"Humanism Emerging From His Lunacy".As for Lowell's political humanity, it is his pacific views arguing against all wars in all its forms. Postmodern humanism is critical of all wars, but the author thinks that a just war, able to maintain the diversification of world cultures and for the greatest benefit of the greatest number of people, can be justified.The second part"Human Emotions"is derived from Lowell's relations with his parents and in his marriages. In his relations to his parents, In his relations to his parents, the attitudes of Lowell's parents to their son changes from authoritarian control to a tolerant acceptance - which can be seen as natural result of a postmodern humanistic social ethos. Lowell's relation with his parents was crisscrossed with tension, ambiguity, and paradox. The paradox is expressed in his hate-and-love ambivalence about his parents. His hate is the hint of the deconstruction of authorities and his love reflects his humanistic care for his parents. As for the fluctuation of Lowell's marriage, Jean Stafford's more emphasis on money than their marriage and literary careers provides us with the postmodern picture of the materialized personal relationships. Elizabeth Hardwick's devotion to the maniac Lowell expresses the non-judgmental perspective of postmodern humanism. However, it can be seen that the excessive freedom in marriage in postmodern society also causes detrimental effects: the legitimization of whores, the rise of gays and lesbians, and so on.It is well known that Lowell's lunacy and his poetry career is connected to his intermittent mental sickness. Lowell, with the voice of the lunatic, fights the illness all his life. The composition of confessional poetry, with its amelioration of his mental state, is the greatest achievement of his fight with the sickness. Otherwise, his refraining from suicide, as opposed to the action of other suicidal poets, also shows his real humanity and his of cherishing life, critical of postmodern tolerance of suicide.The analysis of Lowell's poems in Chapter Four is arranged, firstly, from humanistic considerations behind his changing poetic styles, and then from textual analysis of confessional poetry from the humanistic angle. Compared with New Critical poetry, Romantic poetry and postmodern fiction, the confessional poetry, with its autobiographic contents and open forms, is the easiest and most effective way to expose personal troubles. Expressing a personal voice is strongly supported by postmodern humanism. But, the excessive emphasis on autobiography and openness, harmful to the healthy development of literature and humanity, tends to make a poem lose its features as a poem, which is judged from his second transition of his poetic styles. The textual analysis of Lowell's poems in Life Studies presents us with the postmodern state: a lifeless society, in"Inauguration Day: January 1953"and"My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow"and so on; the decline of tradition expressed in the elegies to his parents"Commander Lowell 1888-1949","Sailing Home From Rapallo", and the poem"Beyond the Alps","Skunk Hour"and so on; his personal living states expressed in"A Mad Negro Soldier Confined at Munich","Waking in the Blue","Home After Three Months Away","Memories of West Street and Lepke","Skunk Hour", etc; and the misfortune of his marriage in"Man and Wife"and"To Speak of the Woe That is In Marriage", and so forth. In these poems, Lowell pays close attention to the poignancy of his families, excavating the historical root of their misfortunes. He shows his postmodern humanity in the exposure of the confusion, anxiety and agony of postmodern people and the repressed society. Nonetheless, Lowell was not pessimistic about his life, but prepared to keep living or struggling like the skunks in"Skunk Hour", which embodies the optimistic humanistic thought of Marxism.Lastly, Chapter Five"Conclusion"explores the merits and weaknesses of postmodernism and advocates the necessity of identifying a postmodern humanism. It is concluded that, postmodernism, with its features of being personal, subjective and relative, opens the ground for the assertions of confessional poetry. However, from the whole analysis of the thesis, it can be seen that postmodernism has its own problems and disadvantages. The extreme emphasis of postmodern logic is detrimental to the improvement of the confused and fragmented state of postmodern. Literature, particularly poetry, has the possibility to address these disadvantages by its ability to assert human values and thus contribute to the construction of a postmodern humanism.In sum, the thesis, based on the perspective of postmodern humanism as combining Kant's subjective and idealistic view of universal reason and reality in his mind with Hegel's objective and idealistic view of a historical, personal reality, but materialistically, as the dialectic Marxism: the overall and healthy development of postmodern human and postmodern humanism conditioned by the postmodern economic, social and cultural elements, in doing the research into Robert Lowell and his poems, enlarges the realm of poetry researches and may help with the development of social, cultural and philosophical exploration of literature.