Life, Writing, and Peace: Reading Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace

Unlike her former award-winning and critically acclaimed works, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace has received little attention. This is an unthinkable phenomenon for a writer who has been hailed as one of the most widely taught authors living in the United States. One of the main reasons is that critics and reviewers do not know how to cope with this complicated, heterogeneous, and "weird" text that defies easy categorization. Nor do they know how to respond to the ways the author urges her readers to squarely face collective American traumas and symptoms through writing (especially the Vietnam War). This paper attempts to approach this intriguing text from the perspective of life writing. Part I points out the undue neglect of this book, refutes some serious misunderstandings, and offers "life writing" as a critical approach. Part II places this book in the context of Kingston's career and life trajectory in order to show that "peace" has always been her major concern. Part III argues that, whereas the 1991 Berkeley-Oakland fire destroyed the manuscript of her "Fourth Book of Peace" along with her house, this "baptism of fire" and its accompanying sense of devastation generated a special empathy, enabling her to better understand those who suffer, especially Vietnam War veterans. Part IV deals with both the subjects of writing trauma and trauma narrative and indicates how Kingston combines her writing expertise with the Buddhist mindfulness expounded by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh to lead the Veterans Writing Workshop. Finally, Part V stresses how Kingston and her writing community, by combining life, writing, and peace, tell their own stories and create new lives both personally and collectively

Life, Writing, and Peace: Reading Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace

Unlike her former award-winning and critically acclaimed works, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace has received little attention. This is an unthinkable phenomenon for a writer who has been hailed as one of the most widely taught authors living in the United States. One of the main reasons is that critics and reviewers do not know how to cope with this complicated, heterogeneous, and "weird" text that defies easy categorization. Nor do they know how to respond to the ways the author urges her readers to squarely face collective American traumas and symptoms through writing (especially the Vietnam War). This paper attempts to approach this intriguing text from the perspective of life writing. Part I points out the undue neglect of this book, refutes some serious misunderstandings, and offers "life writing" as a critical approach. Part II places this book in the context of Kingston's career and life trajectory in order to show that "peace" has always been her major concern. Part III argues that, whereas the 1991 Berkeley-Oakland fire destroyed the manuscript of her "Fourth Book of Peace" along with her house, this "baptism of fire" and its accompanying sense of devastation generated a special empathy, enabling her to better understand those who suffer, especially Vietnam War veterans. Part IV deals with both the subjects of writing trauma and trauma narrative and indicates how Kingston combines her writing expertise with the Buddhist mindfulness expounded by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh to lead the Veterans Writing Workshop. Finally, Part V stresses how Kingston and her writing community, by combining life, writing, and peace, tell their own stories and create new lives both personally and collectively

Trauma, Re(-)membering, and Reconciliation—On Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial

[[sponsorship]]歐美研究所[[note]]已出版;有審查制度;具代表

Teaching Asian American Literary and Cultural Studies in Taiwan

[[sponsorship]]歐美研究所[[note]]已出版;沒有審查制度;具代表

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Poetry Translator:On Yu Kwang-chung’s Translations from English Poetry (with notes) (1960)

[[abstract]]余光中縱橫文壇七十載，於詩歌、散文、評論、翻譯均有亮麗的表現，號稱自己「寫作生命的四度空間」。然而他在詩歌與散文上的成就往往使人忽略了他的「譯績」與貢獻。其實，他多年來翻譯的文本遍及詩歌、戲劇、小說、傳記等重要文類，其中又以「詩人譯詩」最為人稱道，影響深遠。本文旨在探討余光中最早的譯詩集《英詩譯註》（Translations from English Poetry (with notes)，1960），指出書中收錄的一九五○年以來的三十七首譯詩連同譯註與作者小傳，既為他初試啼聲的英詩中譯結集，也反映了他當時的翻譯理念與策略，藉由文字的迻譯、文本的解析、文學的詮解、甚至文化與脈絡的再現，具現了他早年「研究」與「提倡」英詩的努力，並預示了「三者合一」的翻譯、譯評與譯論。[[abstract]]A versatile man of letters, Yu Kwang-chung has long excelled in the areas of poetry,prose, literary criticism, and translation, which he describes as “the four dimensions of my writing life.” However, his extraordinary achievements as a poet and essayist frequently overshadow his role as a translator and his various contributions to translation. As a matter of fact, for over six decades, his translations have embraced poetry, drama, novel, and biography; of these, his translations of poetry, in particular, have won widespread acclaim due to their tremendous influence in the Sinophone world. This paper focuses on Translations from English Poetry (with notes) (1960), his first collection of English poems in Chinese translation since 1950. The thirty-seven collected poems are studied alongside the translator’s meticulous notes and the poets’ brief biographies. In so doing, we find that Yu’s first volume of translated poems both demonstrates his ability as a translator of poetry, and reflects his translation concepts and strategies. In the transfer of words, analysis of texts, interpretation of literary skills, allusions, and conventions, and representation of cultural and historical contexts, Yu reveals his tremendous efforts in researching and promoting English poetry to Chinese readers, and foretells his later translation of poetry, translation theory, and translation criticism

The impact of occupational psychological hazards and metabolic syndrome on the 8-year risk of cardiovascular diseases-A longitudinal study.

There was little information concerning the combined effect of occupational psychosocial hazards such as long working hours, high job stress, and high fatigue on the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (CVD). The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction among occupational psychosocial hazards and the impact of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on the risk of CVD among bus drivers. The Taiwan Bus Driver Cohort Study involving 1014 professional drivers was established in 2005 and comprehensively studied. The interactions among occupational psychosocial hazards and the impact of MetS on the risk of CVD were measured. A working pattern questionnaire, job stress questionnaires, the Swedish occupational fatigue inventory, the stress satisfaction offset score, biochemical measurements, and physical examinations were used to assess psychosocial hazards and the presence of metabolic syndrome. There were 707 eligible bus drivers with a mean age of 43.5years old. During the 8-years of follow-up, 77 drivers were diagnosed with CVD. Long working hours, high job stress, and high fatigue were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease incidence in the multivariate analysis. There were synergistic effects among long working hours, high job stress, and high fatigue only in drivers with MetS. A combination of long working hours, high job stress, and high fatigue increased the risk of developing CVD in bus drivers with MetS