Diffusion of Distances

Dialogues Between Chinese and Western Poetics

Wai-Lim Yip

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520077362
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520912304
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

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.
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