Ecopoetics in the Dagong Poetry in Postsocialist China: Nature, Politics, and Gender in Zheng Xiaoqiong’s Poems

In his book, The Song of the Earth, Jonathan Bate regards Romanticism in the Western literary tradition as an “ecopoetics.” Citing Paul de Man’s well-known statement—“There is no doubt that the pastoral theme is, in fact, the only poetic theme, that it is poetry itself”—Bate continues to write,

Ecopoetics asks in what respects a poem may be a making (Greek poiesis) of dwelling-place—the prefix eco- is derived from Greek oikos, “the home or place of dwelling.” According to this definition, poetry will not necessarily be synonymous with verse: the poeming of the dwelling is not inherently dependent...