Author Description

"As the title indicates, the thesis is a comparative analysis of Metaphysical poets and Mid-Late Tang poets, under the general category of Baroque. The scholarship on this topic is minimal because only recently with the study of James Liu on Li Shangyin and the Baroque we have learned to think of Tang poets as Baroque poets. The same goes for Metaphysical poets who were so-called by Dr. Johnson but who actually belong to the Baroque style. Author's definition of Baroque, however, does not conform to that of James Liu who uses the term historically, and compares terms which he identifies as "Baroque" and are common to both metaphysical poets and Tang poets. Author's concept of Baroque is based on Nietzsche's definition as a poetic "style" which can be found in any period, in any place and in any country: in the West as well as in the East, in England, or Europe, as in China. Nietzsche's definition of Baroque is associated with a concept of art as allegory, in opposition to traditional poetic forms, which are symbolic. According to Nietzsche, there is allegorical or Baroque poetry, when traditional, symbolic forms are disrupted or are in decline. An analysis of Baroque poetry cannot be based on a symbolic approach but on an allegorical reading which is attentive at the ways in which the poetry is displaced from traditional forms. The three metaphysical poets I have selected are John Donne, Andrew Marvell and Richard Crashaw, and for each one the author discusses three poems. For Mid-Late Tang poetry he has chosen three poems of Meng Jiao, Li He and Li Shangyin. The study is divided in Introduction, a chapter on Metaphysical poets, a chapter on Mid-Late Tang poets, a third chapter on a comparative analysis of Metaphysical and Mid-Late Tang conceits. A short conclusion and a Bibliography conclude the study"--