Abstract
Auden’s “Sonnets from China” are often understood as abstract thinking on war and peace or as account of the author’s personal spiritual progress, but as descriptions of his “journey to a war,” the “Sonnets from China” are better understood as sonnets about China. Auden’s other writings of this period, including the “Travel-diary” of Journey to a war and journal publications, help to show many of the historical references behind the sonnets. Chinese news reports at the time also reveal the sonnets’ specific contexts and the extent to which Auden’s sonnets can be understood as descriptions of the war in China. Although Auden at the time had tendencies to transcend politics, his attitude to the war in China and his view on art-politics relation in general was more complex than critics have so far allowed. This essay is not just an enquiry into the historical meaning of the sonnets, but also an investigation into the larger meaning of art’s role in the society.
Highlights
Between February and June 1938, under the auspices of Faber and Faber and Random House, W
If we could restore the sonnets to their historical context and read them together with Auden’s other writings of this period, as well as
Though the sonnets were translated into Chinese right after their publication in 1939 by Bian Zhilin (1983, pp. 150–175) and Zha Liangzheng (1985, pp. 107–145), a fact showing the sonnets’ great political and poetical importance to China at that time, only recently do we find critics writing on the subject in a scholarly fashion
Summary
Between February and June 1938, under the auspices of Faber and Faber and Random House, W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood visited China, a country torn apart by the Sino-Japanese war.
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