Modernist Aesthetics in Taiwanese Poetry since the 1950s

Much of the previous scholarship on Taiwanese modernist poetry easily falls into ideological arguments. This book participates in the development of an alternative approach to understanding Taiwanese modernist poetry. Dr. Au’s approach emphasizes the diversity and intensity of experiences of place and placelessness in the work of five poets: Lomen, Luo Fu, Rong Zi, Yu Guangzhong and Zheng Chouyu.
The phenomenon of placelessness is a problem in all modernity and so modern aesthetics is an outgrowth of modern society’s sense of placelessness. This book not only shows how place becomes placelessness but also analyses Taiwanese modernist poets’ responses to the phenomenon of placelessness. Four kinds of places are examined, namely, the house, the city, homeland and an imagined literary community, in this work. The result is both refreshing and original.

Au Chung-to, Ph.D. (2003) in Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong, is Assistant Professor of University of Macau. She has published extensively on modern Chinese literature.