Seeking the Spiritual Home of Humanity’s Poetic Dwelling: A Review of Ma Dakang’s A Study of Poetic Language

"In a destitute time, what are poets for?" Heidegger's famous question constantly troubles, in our technology-ruled age, the company of people who live and die with poetic language—even though this company can hardly be called eye-catching at present, and even though sometimes their effort seems only a futile struggle and a bitter holding-on. Yet Ma Dakang, with his consistent persistence and latent passion, diligently traces the roots and opens up new territory for poetic language, and after more than ten years has produced the grand, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-character A Study of Poetic Language (China Social Sciences Press, March 2005; citations below give only page numbers). This work, "with every word congealed from his own heart's blood," everywhere flashes with the poetic charm of language and opens window after window onto the search for the spiritual home of humanity's poetic dwelling.

I. Continuing Forward Along Predecessors' Poetic Interpretations

From Zhuangzi's "land of nothing-whatsoever" to Heidegger's "home of Being" and then to Bakhtin's "new forms of life," predecessors' poetic interpretations of language gave the author much inspiration; but this inspiration did not leave him timorous and halting—on the contrary, it gave him a few more measures of courage to continue forward. In the introduction, the author clearly combs out the three main lines of poetic-language research to date. The first line regards poetic language as an objective, independent category relative to everyday applied language, distinguishing it in terms of rhetoric, structure, function, and other aspects, and striving to reveal the characteristics of poetic language—such as Russian Formalism, Anglo-American New Criticism, and semiotics. The second line strives to negate the objectivity of the so-called distinction of the first line, and seeks the root of language's acquisition of poetic character from the angle of the human's subjective attitude, mode of reading, literary competence, and so on—such as Croce, Isenberg, Eagleton, and reader-response criticism. The third line is distinctive: it thinks from the root of language's genesis, connecting language with Being, and proposes that poetic language is the "primal language," the manifestation of Being and truth—such as Heidegger and Gadamer. Regarding these three lines, the author points out that the substance of the first two is "thought about 'beings'; poetic language, as a 'Being,' escapes in such thinking." And although the third line is rich in inspiration, it in fact still remains within the strange circle of the purely speculative, circular argument of "the Dao that can be spoken is not the constant Dao." On this basis, the author proposes his own new view: the relation of human and language is multidimensional, and poetic language is the language in which human and language are in a poetic relation. Then, what kind of relation is the poetic relation? How is the poetic relation historically formed, and how does the human enter into the poetic relation with language? This series of questions becomes the crux of the study of poetic language. In the ceaseless process of questioning, the category of poetic language becomes a changing category, and the study of poetic language becomes one flowing line of scenery after another.

II. Horizontal Expansion via the Virtual Intentional Relation

The upper part of the book sets out from the basic notion that "language is a chameleon," letting the self-opposing multiple characters in which language exists be displayed one by one: it has both "divinity" and "instrumentality," both "openness" and "concealment," both the power of "liberation" and the malady of "tyranny," both "self-having" and "self-lessness," both letting "the self be forgotten" and being able to let "the self manifest" (p. 43). To seek the poetic relation of human and language through the multiple characters of the "chameleon," the author quite creatively proposes the concept of the "virtual intentional relation" and carries out a horizontal expansion with this concept.

Compared with the "fiction" customarily used in Western literary theory, the virtual intentional relation obviously has a stronger power of theoretical interpretation. The word "fiction," in its long use, has become somewhat blurred in its original poetic connotation and extension, whereas the virtual intentional relation, proposed on the basis of phenomenological notions, can clearly probe the origin and development of poetic language. The author holds that the originary relation among human, language, and world is the "human–god" relation; for primitive people this relation was real, but in fact it was virtual. With the departure of the gods, this relation degenerated into a pure virtual intentional relation, and the unequal "human–god" relation also transformed into the intimate "I–Thou" relation—and this is precisely the poetic relation. The virtual intentional relation between human and language is differentiated from the originary relation; it has an ancient, far-reaching source and is at the same time the necessary path by which humanity maintains a rich connection with the world and a permanent running-through with humanity's own root (p. 66). It is precisely under the illumination of the virtual intentional relation that such theoretical discourses as linguistic defamiliarization, linguistic blanks and vacancies, and context—which once rendered great service to the generation and development of poetic language—acquire a new interpretive space.

The theory of linguistic defamiliarization, as an important cornerstone of Russian Formalist literary theory, leads to the establishing of the virtual aesthetic intentional relation between human and language, leads to the poetic transformation of words, and thereby triggers words to make self-adjustment and self-supplementation. Thereby, defamiliarization leads the human into the aesthetic world, endows the human with a brand-new mode of existence, and lets the human treat language and the world with an open attitude. The function of defamiliarization is not, as Russian Formalism says, to increase the resistance of perception so that human and world become estranged and at odds, but ultimately to let the human face the world with an innocent heart and truly draw near to and harmonize with the world. Humanity's longing for childhood, for love, for the homeland, and for lost civilization is all founded on the prototype of the originary relation of human and nature; it is a deformation and variation of the originary relation. Poetic language, then, seeks that originary relation through the creation of linguistic defamiliarization, hoping to rebuild the lost home (p. 86). But poetic creation is not merely for pursuing a lost dreamland; while tracing back to the past, it at the same time foreshadows an ideal future. By renaming the world, it restores the human's rich connection with the world, yet this is not a return to the primitive relation but the nirvana-rebirth of the primitive relation (p. 88).

If the virtual aesthetic intentional relation between human and language can be established with the aid of linguistic defamiliarization, then the "linguistic vacant position" the author proposes is the basic way in which the virtual aesthetic intentional relation between human and language is displayed. Differing from Ingarden's "vacancy," which stresses the intentional object, and from Iser's "blank," which stresses the overall textual system, the "vacant position" stresses a mode of existence of language itself, and the poetic of language gains its fullest display in the "vacant position." In the "vacant position," poetic language is creation—it is both the author's creation and the reader's creation; it embodies the process of life unfolding and manifests the state of life's existence, a free, poetic state of existence. Poetic language is also language's own creation: it breaks free of bondage and displays a space of freedom; it breaks through the finite and enters a boundless cosmos and an endless process. When poetic language becomes the spiritual cosmos of the human's free creation, becomes the very process of free creation and merges into one with the human, it itself becomes an ideal state of existence of the human, becomes the human's home of existence. In this spiritual home, the human, through the full liberation of his inner potential and the free exercise of his creativity, returns to himself most thoroughly and most fully experiences the surging of life and the joy of the spirit. Poetic language lets language return to its natural state, lets language regain the nature forgotten in everyday use, and at the same time lets the human find his own authentic existence and return to the spiritual home that is properly his own (pp. 103–104). In poetic language, human and language finally merge into one and enter the aesthetic realm of self-forgetting, enter a chaotic harmony in which there is no distinction of you and me. In poetic language, the myriad things dwell here and bathe in the radiance of the divine (p. 115).

From the establishing to the displaying of the virtual aesthetic intentional relation, the charm of poetic language itself is laid bare without remainder; but it must still, in ceaseless communication with the human, let the poetic flow everywhere. Context, as the environment and background that always accompanies the human's linguistic communicative activity, plays a role not to be underestimated in the poetic generation and development of language. The author especially stresses that, because human and language are in a virtual aesthetic intentional relation, once the real context becomes estranged from the human, the productivity of the internal context of the text and the indeterminacy of the external context are highlighted, and language thereby possesses an ever-changing magic and overflows with abundant poetic feeling (p. 140).

III. Vertical Extension via the Change of Media

The lower part of the book sets out from analyzing the assertion of many Western writers, linguists, philosophers, and anthropologists that "poetry is 'the mother tongue of humanity,'" and stresses that "the mother tongue of humanity can only be the primal metaphor, not poetry"; only when the primal metaphor hatches the poetic metaphor is the poetic relation of human and language established. The primal metaphor breeds the poetic relation of human and language and propagates a poetic language whose domain is far vaster than itself (p. 163). And poetic language, as a Being, must take a medium of material form as its necessary carrier. From "oral transmission" to "writing," from "writing" to "image," from "image" to "the network," the change of media lets poetic language, amid its ups and downs, display its path of vertical extension. Worth noting is that the author's thinking does not run in a simple linear way but advances layer by layer in words full of a speculative color, letting us, after the worry of "the mountains and rivers run out and there seems no road," feel the surprise of "dark willows and bright flowers, another village."

When the author discusses the changes that the shift from "oral transmission" to "writing" brought to poetic language, on one hand he stresses that writing promoted the poetic generation of language and the refinement of poetic language; on the other he points out that the price of writing is the gradual loss of the vital vigor of oral language and the loss of the directness with which oral language expresses emotion. On this basis he makes an incisive analysis: "Poetic language is not only the result of the transformation from oral transmission to the written, but the darling jointly conceived, in the process of that transformation, by the mutual interaction of the oral and the written" (p. 187). As for poetic language's effort to deliberately return to the earth after "writing" had distanced it from the folk and turned it aristocratic, he points out, not without depth: "Poetic language's return to the oral is not merely the gathering of oral words, but a return, in spirit, intimately to the folk, to the earth, to the source of life. At the moment when language helplessly leaves its native home, it strives, through the 'native accent,' to draw near to Being anew and return to the 'home of the world'" (p. 207).

Facing the empire of images created by electronic media represented by television, the author feels deep worry for the empire of print media built up over several centuries; he holds that the marginalization of literature and the dim prospect of poetic language are unavoidable. Somewhat pessimistically, he speaks of the possible fate of poetic language: "In an age in which the soul has lost its tranquility and become anxious and restless, language's ability to create a poetic realm and settle the soul is no longer what the human pursues" (pp. 228–229). But he also strives to find the most reliable evidence for the survival of poetic language in the age of images. He points out that the greatest distinction between poetic language and applied language lies precisely in this: that it always preserves a free space between itself and the real. With this space, the human's spirit and emotion are settled, and the human's soul and imagination seem to glimpse from it a mysterious, faint mirage and sanctuary (p. 216).

Utterly unlike the worry the age of images brings the author, the age of the network puts the author in a state nearly of cheering. He declares: "It is precisely free network writing that determines the future direction of poetic language" (p. 231). For the cyberspace controlled by network technology, the author is not sparing of praise: cyberspace provides a "poetic," "romantic world," so much so that the literary world seems instead redundant and pales. It is for this reason that poetic language extends its domain to the whole of cyberspace. In cyberspace, poetic language may become crude and jumbled, vast and trackless; good and bad grow together, even beyond recognition—yet it will never wither and perish. Cyberspace, after all, provides language with the best dwelling-place; language is still being generated and remains active in network writing, mutating at an unprecedented speed. The natural state and authentic spirit of language will also revive in cyberspace (pp. 253–254).

IV. Reflections Brought by the Theoretical Trek

Expanding horizontally via the virtual intentional relation, extending vertically via the change of media, and continuing forward along predecessors' poetic interpretations, this book constructs an ideal framework in which the author can gallop freely. As for my own reading experience, this ideal framework is largely realized; but the following three aspects are still worth discussing.

First, the congenital disability of modern new poetry. Compared with classical Chinese poetry, sedimented over a thousand years, the vernacular poetry since the May Fourth period is indeed somewhat feeble in the poetic creation of language; but it cannot be denied that a hundred years of new poetry has also provided no small number of works brimming with poetic feeling. At least in my view, the success or failure of the poetic creation of language lies not in classical Chinese or the vernacular themselves but in the degree to which classical Chinese and the vernacular are poeticized.

Second, the poetic crisis of language in the age of images. If we hold that the category of poetic language is a changing category, then our direction of effort in the age of images should be to seek the brand-new space for the generation of poetic language rather than sighing helplessly at the "image." In fact, photographic literature, film literature, television literature, and even the all-pervasive advertisement all hold a new space for the generation of poetic language. The poetic crisis of language in the age of images is only the crisis of poetic language in the traditional sense, while the hope lies in the generation of poetic language in the modern sense.

Third, the carnival state of language in cyberspace. Although the surging literary websites and the dazzling personal blogs let the masses enjoy the folk carnival of free writing, the language in cyberspace, with its silt and sand pouring down together, also leaves the poetic at a loss. The vigorous, lively scene within it is, to be sure, gladdening, but the predicament of gazing about in bewilderment is all the more worthy of attention. If one speaks of the poetic dissolution of language amid the postmodern clamor of many voices, then the cyberspace provided by the age of the network is what truly grips the heart!

Of course, the above three aspects are merely my own narrow view, the shortcomings I personally felt in the process of reading; they do not obscure the radiance the author displays in his active exploration of poetic language. Moreover, I also note that, however the virtual intentional relation expands and however the media change, the author's two basic views run through from beginning to end: "The multidimensionality of the human's existence and the richness of the human's state of existence destine the human not to be able to forsake poetic language." "To a certain degree, the state of language is the human's state of existence, and the poetic state of language is the human's richest, most natural state of existence" (p. 254). If so, then the appearance and dissemination of A Study of Poetic Language can be seen as a memorable journey of humanity, in the process of knowing itself, in search of the spiritual home of poetic dwelling.