Lore and Verse is the first English-language book dedicated entirely to studying the poetic subgenre of poems on history (yongshi shi 詠史詩). In this volume, Yue Zhang discusses how the poets in traditional China incorporated historical lore in their poems, using their literary productions as a means of negotiating and articulating the cultural pressures exerted upon them by history and the power of nostalgia. Zhang's research shows that these poets were not passive receptacles of the past but, rather, actively appropriated and adapted historical lore to their own ends. His analysis of their literary practices is enhanced by his understanding of the theories related to historical memory and formation of cultural identity. In short, Zhang's work has enriched our understanding of the history of poetic language and Chinese literature and culture while bringing the Chinese literary tradition into a larger conversation about memory and identity with many other cultures...
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Book Review|
November 01 2023
Lore and Verse: Poems on History in Early Medieval China
Yue Zhang.
Lore and Verse: Poems on History in Early Medieval China
. Albany
: State University of New York Press
, 2022
(SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture). xvi, 240
pp. ISBN 9781438486918 (hardcover); ISBN 9781438486925 (paperback); ISBN 9781438486932 (e-book).Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (2023) 10 (2): 514–516.
Citation
Nanxiu Qian; Lore and Verse: Poems on History in Early Medieval China. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 1 November 2023; 10 (2): 514–516. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/23290048-10767935
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