Skip to Main Content

GED3309 The Problem of Love in Western and Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Modern: Home

Course Description

This course on Western and Chinese poetry aims to complicate and problematize the question of “love” in relation to emotion, desire, imagination, memory, self, metaphor, metonym, allegory, poetics, aesthetics, mythology, religion, society, politics, culture, etc. Students will read both Western canons of Greco-Roman epic and poetry, Medieval ballads, Renaissance sonnets, Romantic verses and Modernist poems as well as Chinese classics of The Book of Odes, Chu verses, Tang- Song poetry, Song lyrics, Ming-Qing poetry and lyrics, and Modern poetry.

Recommended Books

The English Bible, King James Version

This Norton edition of the English Bible of King James Version consists of 3 parts- the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the so-called Apocrypha, miscellaneous writings from the Hellenistic period that never achieved the status of sacred scripture among the Jewish communities of Babylonia and Palestine. The historical and critical appendix comprises three distinct collections. It includes reflections on the Bible by philosophers from Hobbes to Ricoeur; a compendium of modern biblical scholarship, focusing on topics such as the oral and the written, the composition of the Pentateuch, and the historical movement from covenant to canon; and a provocative sampling of comparative and literary approaches.

Byron's Poetry and Prose

This selection of Byron’s works includes the complete texts of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, The Giaour, The Prisoner of Chillon, Manfred, Beppo, and The Vision of Judgment, and over half of Don Juan (with complete cantos I, III, V, XI, XIII, and XVII), along with more than eighty of Byron’s letters and journal entries. The texts are arranged into four clearly-defined periods of Byron’s life, which are Early Years and First Pilgrimage, Years of Fame in Regency Society, Exile on Lake Geneva, and Final pilgrimage- Italy and Greece. The criticism offers both important nineteenth-century responses to Bryon and major recent studies.

Inferno

Inferno is an epic poem written by the Italian poet Dante. It is the first part of Dante’s poem Divine Comedy, the second and third part of which are Purgatorio and Paradiso. Inferno describes Dante’s journey through the Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. The Inferno has nine circles of torment in a concentric form, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and sinners being punished in each circle committed crimes of being heretic, lustful, gluttonous, avaricious, wrathful, heretics, warmongers, flatterers, and treachery. Eventually, Dante and Virgil escaped from Hell and went on to Purgatory.

John Donne's Poetry

This book is a collection of John Donne’s poetry. The texts are divided into five sections- Satires, Elegies, Verse Letters to Several Personages, Songs and Sonnets, and Divine Poems. The Criticism is divided into four sections- Donne and Metaphysical Poetry includes seventeenth-century views on Donne and his style; Satires, Elegies, and Verse Letters includes seven selections that offer social and literary context for and insights into Donne’s frequently overlooked early poems; Songs and Sonnets features six analyses of Donne’s love poetry; and Holy Sonnets/Divine Poems explores Donne’s struggles as a Christian through four authoritative essays.

The Odyssey

The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the Trojan War, but Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has still not returned. In his absence, Odysseus is assumed to have died, due to which his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors. After ten years of adventure on the sea, experiencing Polyphemus- the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon, Aeolus- a king endowed by the gods with the winds, Laestrygonians- a tribe of man-eating giants, Circe- daughter of the sun-god Helios, Sirens, and Calypso, Odyssey finally returns to Ithaca, kills all the suitors, and reclaims his wife and household.

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem written by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The poem represents the biblical story of the Fall of Man- Adam and Eva fall under the temptation by the fallen angel Satan, and are expelled from the Paradise Eden. The first edition, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout. This book adopts the 1674 edition, with emendations and adoptions from the first edition and the scribal manuscript. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized.

Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses is an epic-length poem by the Roman poet Ovid. The theme of the book is metamorphoses, namely, human beings transformed into animals, plants, stars, stones, etc, based on Pythagoras’ teaching of metempsychosis, or “the transmigration of souls”. This poem begins with the creation of the world, and ends with Rome in Ovid’s own time. It consists of some 250 stories divided into 15 Books, most of which are love stories. Some of the stories are widely known, such as the story of Jupiter, the story of Oedipus and the story of Medea.

Yeats's Poetry, Drama, and Prose

This book presents a comprehensive selection of Yeats’s major contributions in literary works, including 145 poems from 13 poetry collections- from Crossways (1889) through Last Poems (1939). Besides, 4 plays, prose fiction and folklore writings from The Celtic Twilight, The Secret Rose, and Stories of Red Hanrahan, autobiographical writings from Reveries over Childhood and Youth (1916) through the posthumously published Memoirs (1972), and selections from his most important critical writings are also collected in this book. This book also includes critical responses to Yeats’s work by his contemporaries and by major recent critics, altogether 24 interpretive essays.

The Cambridge Companion to Petrarch

Petrarch was an Italian poet best known for his collection of Italian lyric poetry dedicated to his beloved Laura. Besides, he has also made great contribution in the field of religious studies and philosophy. This book collects essays that view Petrarch’s life through his works. It is divided into six parts- Lives of Petrarch, Petrarch’s works in Italian, Petrarch’s works in Latin, Petrarch’s interlocutors, Petrarch’s Afterlife, plus a concluding chapter. Particular attention is given to Petrarch’s profound influence on the Humanist movement and on the courtly cult of vernacular love poetry.

The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare

This book covers the traditional categories of Shakespeare study- his life, times and work. Twenty-one essays provide lively and authoritative approaches to recent scholarship and criticism. Individual readings of the plays are given in the context of genre including poems, comedies, tragedies, English history plays, classical plays, tragicomedies, as well as through the cultural and historical perspectives of race, sexuality and gender, and politics and religion. Essays on performance survey the latest digital media as well as stage and film. The reception of Shakespeare, the relation between Shakespeare and popular culture, as well as the globalization of Shakespeare are also examined.

中國文學史

本書對中國文學進行了源流探討、作家評介和掌故考證。依次論講《詩經》、春秋戰國散文、《楚辭》、先秦神話與寓言、漢賦、漢代散文、漢代詩歌、魏代文學、兩晉詩歌、南朝文學、南朝詩人、北朝文學、魏晉南北朝小說、初唐詩、盛唐詩、中唐詩、晚唐詩、唐代散文、唐代傳奇與變文、晚唐五代詞、北宋詞、南宋詞、宋詩、宋代散文、宋代話本與諸宮調、元代散曲、元代雜劇、明代文學思想與散文、明代散曲、明代傳奇、明代小說、清代詩文、清代詞曲、清代小說。

迦陵谈诗

本书记录了作者对诗的独到见解。开篇第一章讨论了自《诗经》起至今中国诗体的演进。其后的篇章分析了《古诗十九首》的时代问题,并对《古诗十九首》进行了解析;谈论了陶渊明的“任真”与“固穷”;谈论了杜甫七律的演进和成就,并着重赏析了《赠李白》诗一首;赏析了李商隐的《嫦娥》以及《燕台》四首。最后几篇依次为用西方现代文学批评理论评析中国旧诗、为周梦蝶诗集《还魂草》所作序、从几首咏花诗生出的诗思、由《人间词话》谈到诗歌的欣赏。

迦陵谈词

本书所论乃是作者读词时的心得和感动,与之后她受西方文论之影响,偏向理论探讨的论词之作大有不同。本书从王国维《人间词话》的三种境界谈起,谈论成大事业大学问者追求理想时的向往心情、艰苦经历和满足喜乐。继而赏析温庭筠、韦庄、冯延巳、李后主等各位词人的风格特色,兼论晚唐五代词在意境方面的演进和拓展。也对晏殊词进行了赏析,并谈论了吴梦窗词现代化的特色。最后是对静安词《浣溪沙》一首的赏析。

中國抒情傳統的再發現: 一個現代學術思潮的論文選集

本書編選了研究中國抒情傳統這一學術思潮的學者的作品中可以歸入這個學術形態的最有代表性的論文,劃分了九個方面,分別是屬於原論部分的(一)抒情傳統的文化淵源、(二)抒情傳統的語文問題、(三)抒情傳統的開啟,屬於本論部分的(四)抒情傳統中的自我、(五)抒情傳統與「詩的時間」、(六)、抒情傳統與文學形式,以及屬於廣論部分的(七)抒情傳統的跨文類版圖、(八)抒情理論的建構與再構、(九)抒情傳統學術思潮的反思。

現代抒情傳統四論

本書是作者王德威對抒情傳統與現代性這一話題的研究,共收錄了四篇文章。〈「有情」的歷史——抒情傳統與中國文學現代性〉一文以沈從文、陳世驤以及捷克漢學家普實克為坐標,縱論多年中外學界對抒情話語的辯證與問難,洞見與不見;另外三篇〈史詩時代的抒情聲音〉〈國家不幸書家幸〉〈抒情與背叛〉則分別以江文也、臺靜農、胡蘭成為焦點,思考抒情的理念淵源、媒介形式、今昔對話、政治條件、個人抉擇。作者提出,應當從歷史經驗的脈絡中觀察抒情之傳統。

Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical Chinese Literature

Reflecting on a series of moments in Chinese writing from the seventh century B.C. to the early nineteenth century, this book shows how the fascination with the past came into being in Chinese literature, some of the forms it took, and the ways readers have responded to such literature. The book cites seventeenth poems in full dating from Zhou, Han Qin, Southern Dynasties, Tang and Yuan, with a predominance of the Tang poems. On the prose side, ten pieces dating from Zhou, Qin, Song, Ming and Qing are cited in this book. Besides, anecdotes and exegeses are also employed to represent the theme of the book.

Recommended Databases