“Spectacular. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice (April 2004)

“Convincing, balanced, and thought-provoking ... a delight to read.” —China Review International (Fall 2004)

“Lucidly and gracefully written, Tracking the Banished Immortal is a major contribution to Chinese literary studies and will be of great interest not only to students of Chinese literature, but also readers broadly interested in Chinese civilization and comparative literature.” —Wai-yee Li, Harvard University

“An intellectual contribution of striking originality offering a sustained and often brilliant account of the problem of past and present in the Chinese poetic tradition. Varsano's work stands out among theoretically engaged works in the field for her ability to translate Chinese critical writings accurately and gracefully.” —Daniel Bryant, University of Victoria

Li Bo (701-762) has long inspired controversy among readers and critics. Known even during his lifetime as the "Banished Immortal," he continues to spark imaginations and challenge passionately held convictions about poetic values. In this lucid and gracefully written volume, Paula Varsano presents the first full-length study of Li Bo in English in half a century and the first extended look at the poet's critical reception.

Persuaded that the essence of his poetry lay well beyond the reach of the usual modes of study and description, readers from the ninth to the twentieth century developed a particularly dynamic critical language. Varsano shows how this language, evolving out of the critical concepts of "emptiness" and "substance," answered the need to conceptualize shifting parameters of poetic creativity over hundreds of years. At the same time, she offers an account of Li Bo's entry into the canon and asks how this in turn transformed both the reception of his work and the transmission of his poetic persona.

This story of Li Bo's critical reception and canonization is propelled by the malleable and elusive ideal of the "ancient." And so, Varsano devotes the second part of her study to the poems themselves, investigating those poetic manifestations of ancientness that translated into the enduring figure of the Banished Immortal.

Paula M. Varsano is associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Smith College.

Read the introduction (PDF).