Metaphysical and Mid-Late Tang Poetry: A Baroque Comparison

This book will be useful to scholars on poetry and translation, college students, and common readers from the English-speaking world. Its new perspectives on poetic baroque style and allegory will enrich the discourse on poetry. Its insightful comparison of translations will inspire further studies. Its detailed explanation of the sophisticated conceits used by both group of poets will be instrumental to college students in the field. Besides, for common readers who barely read about pre-modern Chinese poets, the biographical details in Chapter 2 will be a smart key for understanding Chinese poems in historical and authorial contexts.

Dr. Xiaowen Xu

Instructor of Chinese Applied Linguistics, Chinese Language, Literature, and Translation

Faculty of Arts | Asian Studies

The University of British Columbia

Building on the pioneering work of James. J. Y. Liu and Tak-wai Wong, Dr. Wang argues that the Baroque as a literary style exists in different periods across countries. He examines Baroque elements first in English metaphysical poetry and then in Chinese mid-late Tang poetry. Comparing different translations of three important poets in mid-late Tang Dynasty, he breaks the traditional understanding of the Baroque in literary scholarship, explores how this concept can shed new lights into Chinese poetics, enriches comparative studies of Chinese and English poetry, and establishes a new analytical angle in the research on traditional poetry.

Dr. Alice Zeng

Polaris College Counseling, USA

Pengfei Wang's new book Metaphysical and Mid-Late Tang Poetry: A Baroque Comparison provides a fascinating discussion into an insightful topic. It represents a bold endeavor to explore the new possibilities of both classical Chinese poetry and the Baroque tradition. Drawing on the ancient Chinese poetic tradition and the European Baroque art, Pengfei Wang rereads different translations of the poems of three most talented Tang poets side by side. His reading provides not only an exciting new approach to cross-cultural comparative study but also a careful and powerful articulation of the vitality of ancient Chinese poetry and the Baroque art.

Dr. Wenjuan Xie

Nanjing Normal University, China