The volume Lyrical Experiments in Sinophone Verse: Time, Space, Bodies, and Things, edited by Justyna Jaguścik, Joanna Krenz, and Andrea Riemenschnitter (Amsterdam University Press, 2025) is now available in open access via the press website.
The 1919 May Fourth movement was the breeding ground for experiments by authors inspired by new world literary trends. Under Mao Zedong, folk songs accompanied political campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward. Misty Poetry of the 1980s contributed to the humanistic discourse of the post-Mao reform era. The most recent stage in Chinese poetry resonates with contemporary concerns, such as technological innovation, environmental degradation, socio-political transformations, and the return of geopolitical Cold War divisions. In search of creative responses to the crisis, poets frequently revisit the past while holding on to their poetic language of self-reflection and social critique. This volume identifies three foci in contemporary poetry discourses: formal crossovers, multiple realities, and liquid boundaries. These three themes often intersect within texts from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan discussed in the book.
Contributors (in alphabetical order): Nick Admussen, Dean Anthony Brink, Simona Gallo, Justyna Jaguścik, Joanna Krenz, Andrea Lingenfelter, Liansu Meng, Andrea Riemenschnitter, Chris Song, Maghiel van Crevel, Victor Vuilleumier, Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Mary Shuk Han Wong, Zhiyi Yang, Michelle Yeh.
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