Parkinson/Poetry and Culture, 1. The Study of 'Middle Kingdom' Literature

The author describes his approach to the poetry of this period, explaining that he discusses them as components of a coherent corpus. He goes on to provide a summary of key events that figured during the period of the Middle Kingdom and goes on to trace the reception history that the literature has experienced since the mid-19th century when it became to known as some of the oldest literature in human history. This leads to an explanation of the approach taken towards dating and interpretation followed in this book which is then placed in the wider historical context through a discussion of the 'propaganda', 'heurmeneutical' , 'formalist' and other critical traditions alongside those of the philological tradition of editing and commentary.