Du Fu: The Case for Chinese Poetry

When one asks: what is a classic? one expects the title of a 'big' novel as the response. This course argues the case for the classical Chinese poetry of the author who has the rightful claim of the greatest poet in Chinese history, Du Fu (712-770). We will look at how poetry focuses on the chemistry of language—the ways words can be put together just so to create specific catalytic 'conversations' of meaning; the engineering of language—the ways specific structures build on and create certain distributions of energy and mass. We will learn to appreciate Du Fu's wit, compassion, learnedness and critical powers and to appreciate as well how poetry can illustrate the evocative and expressive power of language.