Turkic poetic heritage as symbol and spectacle of identity: observations on Turkmenistan’s Year of Magtymguly celebrations

This paper presents one case study of state-sponsored cultural activities that occurred throughout 2014, Turkmenistan’s Year of Magtymguly, the 290th anniversary of this Turkmen poet’s birth. Such activities constitute examples of public culture; they can organize representations of a society’s past and present to reaffirm for participants the values and power structure of their society and revalidate its philosophical underpinnings. After examining this Turkic poet’s iconicity, this paper compiles 2014's celebratory events from disparate sources, complementing broader general literature on Central Asia’s spectacles of public culture and their role in nation-building and identity-formation. Rather than merely resulting from any top-down decision specifying required activities nationwide, the year’s events involved numerous synergies as artists, museum and theater administrators, composers, and other cultural-sector workers benefited by responding to the potential of aligning their work with a theme as broad, as widely appreciated, and as eligible for various forms of support as this one. In addition, Turkmenistan’s strong central leadership benefited from this widely shared and highly visible celebration, especially emphasizing one element within Magtymguly’s eighteenth-century vision, an end to his people’s tribal conflicts within a unified Turkmenistan under one leader.     

Using yoshikono and war to save rakugo in Osaka

Abstract

In April 1936, the magazine Kamigata hanashi (Kamigata Story) was launched in Osaka. This was a rakugo (traditional comic storytelling) magazine published monthly out of a local storyteller's home. One mission of the magazine as laid out by the editor in the inaugural issue was to preserve a local narrative tradition that was losing a popularity battle with manzai (two-person stand-up comedy) and other modern performing arts and media. Interestingly, in the second year of the magazine's run, the editor issued a call for yoshikono, which, like dodoitsu, are songs conventionally written in lines of 7-7-7-5. This too was a tradition that, it was written, needed a champion. Yoshikono submissions increased with each issue until they filled multiple pages, reaching into the hundreds. Prizes were given for the best entries, and public yoshikono gatherings were advertised – singers and shamisen players were even enlisted in what appears to be an attempt to revive a community performance tradition with historic links to storytelling in Osaka. This article shines light on the largely forgotten art of yoshikono, discusses its role in an Osaka rakugo magazine from 1937 to 1940, offers forty verses in translation, and considers why yoshikono was unable to make a comeback after the Second World War.     

忧郁的诗魂--戴望舒诗歌的美学特征

戴望舒诗歌中的忧郁具有浓厚的形而上色彩.其忧郁表现为以下三个方面不可捉摸性、普遍性和深沉性,它们共同组成了戴望舒诗歌艺术的美学特征.     

Poets,culture and orature: A reappraisal of the Malawi political public sphere, 1953–2006

Mapanje and Mphande make a persuasive case for the significant role of literature in challenging Dr Banda's one-party hegemony. The contested terrain, as Mphande notes, was orality, the dominant medium in Malawi where literacy levels are low. It has been assumed, though, that orature did little to challenge Banda's hegemony. I argue that far from being silent, the popular musicians and dramatists (as orature) were much braver than the writers. While written poetry and prose was often presented in coded and dense texts, the musicians’ and dramatists lyrics and texts were usually much more explicit. And while writers used folk tales and appropriations from traditional culture as templates to critique Dr Banda's autocratic regime, oral practitioners went further, critiquing Dr Banda's regime using the same templates but also pointing out the socio-economic suffering of the peasantry.

Since 1994, as writers’ critiques have become muted and spasmodic in the ‘multiparty’, musicians have consistently been loud and forceful voices on behalf of the poor. From 1953 to 2006, orature has been a continuous tool of resistance whereas literature has been an intermittent response, often related to patronage, to political and socio-economic events. Further, while literature tends to be concerned predominantly with human rights and democracy issues, orature is concerned with these as well as socio-economic rights; a distinction reflective of class, the rural/urban divide and education in Malawi. The findings are generalisable to other Bantu-language-speaking countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique. I posit that assessments of Malawi's current and future socio-economic and political cultures that exclude oral critiques miss significant and critical factors impacting on developmental changes in these spheres.     

世界文学与中国现代诗歌的世界性

世界文学概念自歌德提出之后,经过不断的讨论和阐释,成为重要的理论范式和方法。丹穆若什强调,世界文学是从翻译中获益的文学,它不是指一套经典文本,而是指一种阅读模式。宇文所安以北岛为例分析了中国现代诗歌在向世界传播过程中的得与失,以及文化民族化与全球化等问题。在世界文学的视域下,中国现代诗歌的发展与流变轨迹既体现了民族化的内在诉求,也见证了其参与世界交流与对话的外在需要。中国现代诗歌的重要发展阶段及集大成者诗人的创作历程,都显示出其在融通民族性与世界性上的不懈努力。中国现代诗歌何以走向世界?罗伯特·白英1947年编译出版的《当代中国诗选》提供了一些可资借鉴的经验与模式。研究世界文学与中国现代诗歌的世界性,有助于推动中国文学与文化走出去,提升文化自信,增强中华文明的传播力与影响力。     

颐和园乾隆《西师诗》碑的意义和价值初探

颐和园乾隆皇帝御制"西师诗"碑文刻于乾隆二十三年(1758年),目前放置于万寿山前山的清华轩的碑亭中,主要内容为从康熙皇帝至乾隆皇帝为了国家的统一,边疆的稳定而平定准噶尔的全过程,它是研究清代西北边疆和民族关系极为重要的历史资料。"西师诗"的特点及价值表现在它是以诗证史、诗史互映,被认为开创了清代边塞诗的先河。《西师诗》《平定准噶尔勒铭伊犁之碑》《平定准噶尔后勒铭伊犁之碑》和《万寿山五百罗汉堂记》刻于同一块碑上,这在全国是独一无二的,具有唯一性。     

“望今制奇”:孟郊诗的新变取向

处中唐之世,受崇尚主观的佛、道二教影响,受追求瘦硬的审美风尚濡染,受皎然主变诗学观的启发,孟郊诗表现出崇主观、尚瘦硬、求理致的新变取向。其"崇主观",主要表现在诗歌意象的创造,从"文章得其微,物象由我裁"的认识出发,孟郊构拟了山水组诗以及与韩愈联句中的奇崛意象,奠定了"韩孟诗派"的险怪基调。其"尚瘦硬",主要表现在锤炼狠重有力的字眼,选用质地坚硬的物象和采用奇险斩截的形式。其"求理致",主要表现为借象明理、以情驭理和语参道佛。孟郊诗的新变取向,已开宋诗之先声。     

论冰心、林徽因诗歌精神的现代性

冰心诗歌中潜在的浓烈、激越情感和睿智的理性精神,充分表现了女性的人格建构、自我认知和寻找真谛的精神活动,从中可以看出现代女性沉心静气、内敛情感、提炼经验、构造心智的努力。林徽因诗歌表现的美与智慧,在与外界的交流中感知自我,认证自我的存在,发现美的价值,做人生价值定位,以感情的真实和理性的智慧的交融,将人生价值追求和艺术审美追求完美契合,以女性生命觉醒和社会价值定位呈现了现代女性的精神成长。     

大历诗僧灵一、灵澈述评

灵一、灵澈是大历诗僧的代表,他们的诗歌禅意浓郁而深远,其创作对禅诗的兴起及清寒幽寂诗风的形成起了重要的作用。     

汉魏六朝诗歌新变论

汉魏六朝诗坛的显著特征是新变,这也是它在中国诗歌史上重要意义所在.具体表现为,诗歌作品记名的普遍化、诗歌地位下移并保持平凡身份、注重形式创造、实现从歌诗到诗歌的转变.该时期诗风更迭频繁而较多个人色彩,"教化"意识相对薄弱而审美追求异常活跃,皆是以上新变诸气象的反映.以前正统诗论视六朝诗歌为代降的过程,并以梁陈两朝为诗歌史上最低谷时期,这种见解至今仍有一定的影响.因此,认识汉魏六朝的新变特征和意义,有助于完善诗歌史的发展观念.