Changing approaches to interpretation: twentieth century re-creations of classical Chinese poetry

Abstract

This thesis explores changes in approaches to the interpretation of the genre of classical Chinese poetry re-created as English poetry during the twentieth century. This genre, produced by two literary cultures - Chinese and English - is subjected to critical scrutiny in both its original and re-created forms and this study discusses the extent to which critical theories resulted in shifts in the interpretive approaches of twentieth century translations of the genre. Interpretive changes are exposed by comparative analysis of publications of the genre by Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley, Burton Watson and Gary Snyder, James J. Y. Liu and Stephen Owen and Pauline Yu and Haun Saussy. This involves a discussion of how their formative years, environmental factors and critical pressures influenced their approaches to interpretation of the genre. The study found that changes to interpretative approaches for the genre rested on two key experiences of translators and readers. Primary influences - family, education and personal pursuits - did affect interpreters of the genre but secondary influences - critical theories, literary trends, political, religious and social movements - had greater impact on interpretive change. Isogesis, an unavoidable factor of cultural interpretation, insidiously influenced how the genre was interpreted and that the increased use of montage and anthology late in the twentieth century attempted to reduce the effect of isogesis and, even more importantly, returned the genre to its cultural roots, the Shijing, the earliest Chinese classical anthology of poetry. This study illustrates three areas of importance. Firstly, it shows that biographical and environmental factors affecting translators caused shifts in approach to interpretation of classical Chinese poetry re-created as English poetry. Secondly, choices of what to re-create and print - made by translators, editors and publishers - affect reader response to the genre. Thirdly and finally, it suggests the possibility that the interpretive approaches of these eight translators can be employed as poetic montage in the third millennium to reduce the effect of misinterpreting of the genre.