I.Book Structure and Essential Argument
The book consists of six chapters: The first chapter emphasizes the origin of the “In the Beginning” Poets Society (the society) in the context of political culture. The second chapter describes the historical landscape of the society abruptly surged during 1960s based on the review of the poetry translation, poetry comments and vanguard writing. The third chapter and the fourth chapter focus on the introduction of the turning point of modern poetry movement in Taiwan by explaining disputes over modern poetry inside and outside the literary circle and on practices of mixing modern poetry with traditional poetry during the poetic exploration of the society. The fifth chapter analyzes the development direction of the society after the 1980s and its communication with the literary circle in the China mainland through poetry. The sixth chapter pays attention to the modern Taiwan poetry movement and the influences of the poetic practices by the poet circle of the society over the foreign Chinese poetry writing, especially over the poetry writing in Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Finally, the appendix of the article provides a catalog recording poets, poetry comments and poems albums that have published each year in theJournal of In the Beginning(《创世纪》)and attached interview records of representative poets.
The article, with the focus on theexploration and analysis of historical materials,investigatesthe development history of the “In the Beginning” Poets Society in Taiwan. Itshows the historical ecology with both empirical study and text analysis and furtherly sorts out the relationship between the societyand the development and evolution of the modernnewpoetry in Taiwan.The main content of the article include:Analyzing and discussing theJournal of In the Beginning, the birth of the society and historical development of the society; Investigating the interior organizational form, operation mechanism, interpersonal relationship, main activities as well as the relationship between the society with other societies such as “ Modernist”, “Blue Star” and “Bamboo Hat (《笠》)” ; Distinguishing and analyzing the turnover of the fellow membership and poetry creation group of the society in different development stages and on the basis of the historical development of the society; Examining the relationship between the society with the development of foreign Chinese poetry; Borrowing from the effective concept of literature history “A Holistic View of China’s New Literature”, the article puts the literature of Taiwan in the historical framework of Chinese literature to reveal the natural inheritance and poetic variation during the formation of modern literature tradition of the society. The article also discusses the literary and artistic achievements of the primary members of the society as well as the significances and influences of the society in the literature history.
II.Primary Innovation and Academic Significance
The article, with an important significance among the studies of the history of poets societies, is the first masterpiece that studies the “In the Beginning” Poets Society published in Chinese mainland. Literary societies form an integral part of the development of modern Chinese literature, of which the literary activities, theoretical scope centered on theIn the Beginningjournal and the literature views and creation works of core members are always icons that lead the literary trend of the times. In the domain of the studies on the Chinese new poetry of the 20thcentury, there are quite few studies touching the topic of poets societies, especially the modern Taiwanese poets societies. The value of the article lies not in the clarification of an historical event but in the great breakthrough in terms of the ideological consciousness and academic perspectives.
The article is committed to the studies on the historical investigation of a literary society as the research object and its relationship with the development and evolution of the modern Taiwanese new poetry. The previous related studies that are used to transfer the investigation of the literature societies into the description of the literature schools, which focus more on the school of thoughts than on the nature of societies, and more on theories summarization than on poets’ activities. From the perspective of the significance of studies on societies, as the most lasting and influential literary society in the development of modern literature in Taiwan, the role of the society played in the literature history is undervalued and shall deserve more attention from the literary circle. Considering the context of society and culture in Taiwan, the article is also of practical urgency and objective significance through the studies on the society systematically.
