{"title":"Stephen Owen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStephen Owen\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a profound exploration of classical Chinese poetry and culture, inviting readers into a world where history and verse intertwine. His works, including titles like \u003cem\u003eJust a Song\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Late Tang\u003c\/em\u003e, present a thoughtful and scholarly yet accessible approach to Arts \u0026amp; Culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough meticulous translation and insightful commentary, Owen’s books illuminate the rich literary traditions of the Tang dynasty and beyond, appealing to readers with a keen interest in poetry, history, and cultural heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"just-a-song-by-stephen-owen-9780674987128","title":"Just a Song","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSong Lyric\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eci\u003c\/i\u003e, remains one of the most loved forms of Chinese poetry. From the early eleventh century through the first quarter of the twelfth century, song lyric evolved from an impromptu contribution in a performance practice to a full literary genre, in which the text might be read more often than performed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYoung women singers, either indentured or private entrepreneurs, were at the heart of song practice throughout the period; the authors of the lyrics were notionally mostly male. A strange gender dynamic arose, in which men often wrote in the voice of a woman and her imagined feelings, then appropriated that sensibility for themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs an essential part of becoming literature, a history was constructed for the new genre. At the same time, the genre claimed a new set of aesthetic values to radically distinguish it from older \u003ci\u003eClassical Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eshi\u003c\/i\u003e. In a world that was either pragmatic or moralizing (or both), song lyric was a discourse of sensibility, which literally gave a beautiful voice to everything that seemed increasingly to be disappearing in the new Song dynasty world of righteousness and public advancement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461103960300,"sku":"9780674987128","price":99.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780674987128-just-a-song.jpg?v=1774958295"},{"product_id":"the-late-tang-by-stephen-owen-9780674033283","title":"The Late Tang","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poetry of the Late Tang often looked backward, and many poets of the period distinguished themselves through the intensity of their retrospective gaze. Chinese poets had always looked backward to some degree, but for many Late Tang poets the echoes and the traces of the past had a singular aura.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this work, Stephen Owen resumes telling the literary history of the Tang that he began in his works on the Early and High Tang. Focusing in particular on Du Mu, Li Shangyin, and Wen Tingyun, he analyses the redirection of poetry that followed the deaths of the major poets of the High and Mid-Tang and the rejection of their poetic styles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Late Tang\u003c\/em\u003e, Owen argues, forces us to change our very notion of the history of poetry. Poets had always drawn on past poetry, but in the Late Tang, the poetic past was beginning to assume the form it would have for the next millennium; it was becoming a repertoire of available choices—styles, genres, the voices of past poets. It was this repertoire that would endure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47603244663020,"sku":"9780674033283","price":82.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780674033283-the-late-tang.jpg?v=1778058517"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/stephen-owen.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}