Manifest in Words, Written on Paper: Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China Contributor(s): Nugent, Christopher M. B. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0674056035 ISBN-13: 9780674056039 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $44.55 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2011 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Asian - Chinese - History | Asia - China |
Dewey: 895.113 |
LCCN: 2010029500 |
Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph |
Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6.2" W x 9.1" (1.40 lbs) 360 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Chinese |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This study aims to engage the textual realities of medieval literature by shedding light on the material lives of poems during the Tang, from their initial oral or written instantiation through their often lengthy and twisted paths of circulation. Tang poems exist today in stable written forms assumed to reflect their creators' original intent. Yet Tang poetic culture was based on hand-copied manuscripts and oral performance. We have almost no access to this poetry as it was experienced by contemporaries. This is no trivial matter, the author argues. If we do not understand how Tang people composed, experienced, and transmitted this poetry, we miss something fundamental about the roles of memory and copying in the circulation of poetry as well as readers' dynamic participation in the creation of texts. We learn something different about poems when we examine them, not as literary works transcending any particular physical form, but as objects with distinct physical attributes, visual and sonic. The attitudes of the Tang audience toward the stability of texts matter as well. Understanding Tang poetry requires acknowledging that Tang literary culture accepted the conscious revision of these works by authors, readers, and transmitters. |
Contributor Bio(s): Nugent, Christopher M. B.: - Christopher M. B. Nugent is Associate Professor of Chinese at Williams College. |