传统与现代之辨：胡先骕诗学与诗歌的人文主义视野 = THE DIALECTIC OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN: THE HUMANIST PERSPECTIVE IN HU HSIEN-HSU'S POETICS AND POETRY

Abstract

Hu Hsien-Hsu was an astute defender of classical literature in the wake of the New Literature Movement in China as he seek to repel the advancement and popularisation of romantic new literature. His criticisms of the movement and Romanticism can be attributed to his personal upbringing, influences from his social circle of culturally conservative literati and his admiration for Irving Babbitt, who points to Rousseau’s romanticism as the main corrupting influence on modern culture. Through examining his literary criticisms and classical poetry, this thesis seeks to illustrate the significance of Hu Hsien-Hsu’s brand of humanistic literature in that literary debate that left him labelled as a ‘cultural conservative’. This thesis also seeks to understand how the poet, in the hope of bridging the seemingly insurmountable differences between Chinese and Western literature, infused traditional Confucius’ literary thoughts with ideas of self-discipline and morals that originated from Irving Babbitt’s Humanism.