Imagining world literatures

modernism and comparative literature

Jessica Berman

pp. 53-70

in: Pamela L. Caughie (ed), Disciplining modernism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Abstract

To think about the relationship between modernism and comparative literature today, it bears examining the well-known debate regarding the Chinese poet Bei Dao. In a 1990 review, sinologist Stephen Owen attacked Dao's reputation, claiming that it was undeserved, and based only on the ease with which Dao could be translated and read by westerners. Disparagingly, Owen called Bei Dao's work poetry "written to travel" (Owen, "What is World Poetry?" 31) and commented that it appeared to lose nothing in translation because it turned its back on Chinese literary tradition and shunned reference to locality. Owen also disparaged what has come to be known as "world poetry," especially because it seems to come at the expense of the local. According to Owen, the market demand for "world poetry" drives writers to adjust their content and language in order to become palatable on the global scene.