A study of the third generation poetry from the gender perspective = Xing bie shi jiao xia de "di san dai" shi ge

Abstract

The Third Generation Poetry that existed in the 1980s’ Chinese literary circle has usually been regarded as the rebellion of the prevailing Misty Poetry. The Third Generation poets began to experiment with colloquial poems which were emphasizing on individual expressions and advocating for the importance of “self”, including the ego and sub-consciousness of both male and female. Through the gender perspective, it could be observed the Third Generation Poetry was rich in gender flavor. The poets especially those of the Female Poetry and the Boorish Fellows Poetry had respectively expressed the awareness and concerns of their own with poem writings.

The Female Poetry, featured with the structure of group poems, the rhetoric of metaphor and symbol, the connotation of the nocturnal consciousness and the lyric of confession, was a showcase for female perception. The issues regarding ego, private space, social identity, pain and love as well as "body writing" had been narrated and depicted by most of women writers. In the meantime, the poetry written by male turned to the descriptions of the lack of masculinity, or the flaunting of male power, or groaning with bitterness. Besides, the desire to vent, the memories of growth and even the detestation on the phenomenon of female being butchered had also been illustrated. Therefore an alternate inspection of the male poets’ views on female and vice versa would help to have a better understanding of gender concepts and the changing relationship between men and women in the last few decades of Chinese society.

Apart from thinking of gender differences and sexual identities the Third Generation Poetry not only focused on the relationship between parents and their children, but also on the connotations of the traditional idea of reproduction and the infant imagery, and even on portraying the rare image of the ego of androgyny. In addition, The Third Generation poetry also presented abundant interlinked gender imagery, such as natural things and body, the darkness and death, the space and items etc., which had been created for the enrichment of the symbolic meanings and the aesthetic significance of the poems.

In short, the social and cultural significance of various gender issues in line with the artistic techniques of the Third Generation Poetry had been scrutinized deeply in the chapters.