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Zen Poetry and Realism: Reflections on KoŪn's Verse

Zen Poetry and Realism: Reflections on KoŪn's Verse positions 8:2 Fall 2000 to the proletarian and/or national liberationist cause. The success of mass protest movements in June 1987 meant both a further stimulus to these tendencies initially and a necessity for fundamental rethinking in the longer run. The geopolitical transformations of 1989–1991 coincided with this domestic conjuncture, producing a rather abrupt change in the atmosphere of the literary world as well. Not only the more rigid doctrines and sloganeering works but any concern for social and political reality as such was often rejected or derided. The vogue for “Zen poems” in the early 1990s can be seen as a reflection of this atmosphere. While the merits of individual productions naturally vary, both the mystical and the antinaturalistic elements in Zen provided a fit antidote to, and in some cases an easy escape from, the militant politics and the various kinds of ‘‘realism’’ of the 1980s. It is important to note, however, that there indeed was more than one kind of realism. Most of the works extolled by the more extremist critics hardly diverged from the socialist realism of the official Soviet school, yet a more complex critical discourse of earlier decades also persisted, adopting the Lukácsian http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Zen Poetry and Realism: Reflections on KoŪn's Verse

positions asia critique , Volume 8 (2) – Sep 1, 2000

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References (11)

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2000 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-8-2-559
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

positions 8:2 Fall 2000 to the proletarian and/or national liberationist cause. The success of mass protest movements in June 1987 meant both a further stimulus to these tendencies initially and a necessity for fundamental rethinking in the longer run. The geopolitical transformations of 1989–1991 coincided with this domestic conjuncture, producing a rather abrupt change in the atmosphere of the literary world as well. Not only the more rigid doctrines and sloganeering works but any concern for social and political reality as such was often rejected or derided. The vogue for “Zen poems” in the early 1990s can be seen as a reflection of this atmosphere. While the merits of individual productions naturally vary, both the mystical and the antinaturalistic elements in Zen provided a fit antidote to, and in some cases an easy escape from, the militant politics and the various kinds of ‘‘realism’’ of the 1980s. It is important to note, however, that there indeed was more than one kind of realism. Most of the works extolled by the more extremist critics hardly diverged from the socialist realism of the official Soviet school, yet a more complex critical discourse of earlier decades also persisted, adopting the Lukácsian

Journal

positions asia critiqueDuke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2000

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