View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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196<br />
Conclusion<br />
Overview<br />
Chapter one <strong>of</strong> this thesis briefly addressed historical circumstances that were relevant to the<br />
writing <strong>of</strong> Tang frontier poetry, defined the term “frontier” (biansai 边 塞 ), and provided a short<br />
introduction to the geography <strong>of</strong> the Chinese frontier as it appeared around the mid-eighth century.<br />
Chapter two followed by presenting the tripartite thematic structure <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry used in this thesis<br />
– responses to frontier warfare, encounters with non-Chinese cultures, and descriptions <strong>of</strong> borderland<br />
environments – and discussed several pre-Tang poetic texts displaying these themes as being literary<br />
precursors to Tang frontier poetry. Chapter three commenced with an overview <strong>of</strong> critical concerns with<br />
the limitations and unintended effects <strong>of</strong> grouping both poetry and poets under a “frontier poetry”<br />
heading. The chapter then continued by demonstrating how during the Tang, especially the High Tang<br />
period, the themes <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry were complicated and enriched by a number <strong>of</strong> poets whose<br />
literary talents and frontier experiences brought the subgenre to its apotheosis.<br />
Part two, chapters four through six, shifted attention to a specific coordinate within the realm <strong>of</strong><br />
frontier poetry – Cen Shen's frontier poems in which the frontier landscape itself is a prominent feature<br />
<strong>of</strong> the texts. Chapter four opened with an overview <strong>of</strong> critical commentary characterizing Cen Shen's<br />
frontier poetry as 奇 (qi, strange; unusual). The chapter then introduced and exemplified aspects <strong>of</strong><br />
focalization that are used in chapters five and six to discuss Cen Shen's frontier landscapes outside the<br />
conventional “strange” or “unusual” paradigm.<br />
Chapter five examined Cen Shen's “hot” and “cold” frontier landscapes by exploring underlying<br />
manners <strong>of</strong> focalization repeated by the texts' poet-narrators in their perceptualization <strong>of</strong> these<br />
conspicuously “thermal” (hot) and “hibernal” (cold) frontier settings. The first section's discussion <strong>of</strong>