A transnational poetics of place: identity, otherness and the meaning of home in the poetry of Li-Young Lee, Marilyn Chin, Bei Dao, Hannah Lowe and Sarah Howe
My project examines the relationship between the experience of otherness, poetic expression and the writer’s negotiation of home in the work of contemporary poets of the Chinese diaspora through critical examination and creative practice. It aims to redraw current accounts of contemporary poetry from 1980s to the present day, to derive new knowledge about the idea of race and the impact of a multi-ethnic environment on contemporary poetics, taking into account relevant criticisms about identity politics from postcolonial and cultural theories. In particular, the project explores the challenge of articulating otherness in terms of language(s), history(ies) and culture(s). Through close readings of significant contemporary poets of Chinese diaspora including Li-Young Lee, Marilyn-Chin (both US-based); Hannah Lowe and Sarah Howe (both UK-based), as well as Bei Dao (China-based), I analyse how a writer’s poetic language is reshaped by his ethnic and socio-historical environments, and examine the reimagining(s) of home among contemporary Chinese diasporic poets. I also connect these readings and theorising with the development of my own creative portfolio. The project includes: (i) a 30,000-word critical commentary based on research and comparative study on the above contemporary poets, focused on the representation of otherness, self-identity and home; (ii) a poetry collection inspired by the themes, images or poetic language of these authors, revealing a spectrum of otherness and the meaning of home, as well as the poet’s conflicts between leaving, returning and translating home; and (iii) one-to-one interviews with these authors on their perceived notions of home, identity, and literary influences. In doing so, I explore and situate my work and identity as a poet within the Chinese diaspora.
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