{"title":"Towards a Poetics of Disaster: Chinese Poetry in Combatting COVID-19","authors":"Yanbin Kang","doi":"10.1080/00138398.2021.1969098","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract China’s campaign against the COVID-19 epidemic has triggered an upsurge in literary creation and animated discussions on writing about disaster. This essay explores the emergence of a disaster poetics in the COVID-19 war which considers poetry as revelatory, ameliorative and cathartic in both personal and national terms. This strand of poetry, which blends humanism, philosophical exploration, and a skeptical impulse, reexamines the isolated state of being, resists glorification, concerns individual lives and redefines heroism as quiet courage, love and compassion in despair among ordinary people, displaying a Chinese forbearance, wisdom and wry humor in facing grim reality. These poetic voices register admirable artistic courage, spiritual depth, self-critical reflection and stylistic ingenuity.","PeriodicalId":42538,"journal":{"name":"ENGLISH STUDIES IN AFRICA","volume":"64 1","pages":"61 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ENGLISH STUDIES IN AFRICA","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00138398.2021.1969098","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract China’s campaign against the COVID-19 epidemic has triggered an upsurge in literary creation and animated discussions on writing about disaster. This essay explores the emergence of a disaster poetics in the COVID-19 war which considers poetry as revelatory, ameliorative and cathartic in both personal and national terms. This strand of poetry, which blends humanism, philosophical exploration, and a skeptical impulse, reexamines the isolated state of being, resists glorification, concerns individual lives and redefines heroism as quiet courage, love and compassion in despair among ordinary people, displaying a Chinese forbearance, wisdom and wry humor in facing grim reality. These poetic voices register admirable artistic courage, spiritual depth, self-critical reflection and stylistic ingenuity.