Diffusion of Distances

Dialogues Between Chinese and Western Poetics

Wai-Lim Yip

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9780520912304
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Poesía

In this collection of passionately argued essays, the internationally acclaimed poet and critic Wai-lim Yip calls Western scholarship to account for its treacherous representation of non-Western literature. Yip moves from Plato to Hans-Georg Gadamer, from Chuang-tzu to Mao Tse-tung, from John Donne to Robert Creeley, as he attempts to create a double consciousness that includes the state of mind of the original author and the expressive potentials of the target language. He aims, first, to expose the types of distortions that have occurred in the process of translation from one language to another and, second, to propose guidelines that will prevent this kind of linguistic violence in the future. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994.
In this collection of passionately argued essays, the internationally acclaimed poet and critic Wai-lim Yip calls Western scholarship to account for its treacherous representation of non-Western literature. Yip moves from Plato to Hans-Georg Gadamer, from

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Transliteration
• Prologue
• 1. The Use of "Models" in East-West Comparative Literature
• 2. Syntax and Horizon of Representation in Classical Chinese and Modern American Poetry
• 3. Language and the Real-life World
• 4. Aesthetic Consciousness of Landscape in Chinese and Anglo-American Poetry
• 5. "Secret Echoes and Complementary Correspondences" — A Chinese Theory of Reading
• 6. Reflections on Historical Totality and the Study of Modern Chinese Literature
• Epilogue. The Framing of Critical Theories in Cross-cultural Context
• Notes
• Romanization Conversion Table: Wade-Giles/Pinyin
• Index