Typographic Bodies: Futurist Biopoetics in Republican China
Because of Futurism’s brief life in modern Chinese letters, Futurist poets and their poetics of speed, violence, and technology, are often left out of anthologies of modern Chinese poetry, or their poetry is attributed to other movements such as concrete poetry or new sensationalism. This talk examines the poetry of Qian Juntao, Ouwai Ou, Xu Chi and others, and argues that the little-studied Futurist literary movement in Republican Era China was part of a broader aestheticization of politics by the Nationalist state. It proposes the term ‘biopoetics’ to articulate how Futurist representations of sublimated violence, industrialization and mechanized female bodies mirrored the New Life Movement’s attempts to regulate the bodies and desires of the population. To achieve this, these poets both drew on the models of F. T. Marinetti and Ezra Pound and refigured classical poetic and calligraphic techniques. Specifically, through the Futurist technique of ‘typographic analogy,’ Chinese Futurists conceived of the zi, or character, as a site where nationalism could be aestheticized and fascist politics could be enacted.
Date: 7 February 2022, 13:00 (Monday, 4th week, Hilary 2022)
Venue: Online
Speaker: Dr Chloe Estep (Columbia University)
Organising department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organisers: Dr Yi Lu (University of Oxford), Dr Coraline Jortay (University of Oxford), Professor Denise van de Kamp (University of Oxford), Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford), Dr Giulia Falato (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: information@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Coraline Jortay (University of Oxford)
Part of: China Studies Seminar series
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__gOkXd5XQ06nzSFhNctGJg
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Clare Orchard