This book offers an in-depth discussion of the evolution of modernist poetry in Taiwan, with a focus on periods preceding and following World War II, and contextualizes the movement within the broader frameworks of Western, Japanese, and Chinese modernism. Through a comparative, dialectical approach, each chapter introduces individual poets and their works to explore key modernist themes such as intellectualism, fudo, pure poetry, translinguistic practice, exile, Cold War cultural ideology, and irony. Despite its significance, Taiwan’s modern poetry has received inadequate scholarly attention within Sinophone language and literature studies; this work aims to address the gap in the literature, offering fresh perspectives and innovative methodological and theoretical frameworks for those interested in Taiwan’s modernist poetic tradition.

A professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU) Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature (TCLL), Nikky Lin obtained her PhD in Taiwan Literature from National Cheng Kung University and has previously worked as a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in the Netherlands. The former Director of the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and Chair of TCLL. She is currently the Executive Director of NTNU’s International Taiwan Studies Center. In addition to her research and teaching, which focus primarily on the literature and culture of Taiwan, Lin is also one of the main editors of Springer’s Sinophone and Taiwan Studies Series and Cambria Press’ Taiwan Literature Series. Her publications include Philosophical Poet of Formosa: Heng-tai Lin and journal articles in Boundary 2, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, Chung-wai Literary Monthly, NTU Studies in Taiwan Literature, NTU Humanitas Taiwanica, Journal of Taiwan Literary Studies, Bulletin of Taiwanese Literature, and Taiwan Historical Research.