published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation is an exploration of the strain of Buddhist thought and practice running through American Modernism and American Modernist Poetry. I examine the works, both poetic and critical, of two authors, Allen Ginsberg and Norman Fischer. I explore Allen Ginsberg's relationship with Buddhism, as it changed throughout his life, looking at key poems in his early career, such as "Sakyamuni Coming Out of the Mountain," and "The Change: Kyoto to Tokyo Express." I also examine "Howl" in light of Ginsberg's early experiences with Buddhism and other spiritual forms. I consider some of the poetics and politics of "Howl" as an example of the both the poetic space and the mind Ginsberg prepared for his later spiritual and poetic life. I also theorize the connections between the Buddhist attitude that Ginsberg cultivates and the modernism of Ezra Pound, who eschewed Buddhist ideas and terms in his re-working of Ernest Fenollosa's well-known essay, "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry." I examine the way Ginsberg considered Pound's Cantos as a model of a mind, in the act of the real work of thinking. I end my treatment of Ginsberg's work with a reading of "Father Death Blues" which Ginsberg considered the "culmination" of his Buddhist training. Looking at Norman Fischer, I focus closely on the Zen aspects of his writing, spending special attention on notions of the koan, as well as things he says (in his Zen lectures and elsewhere) about intersections between Zen mind perception models and models of mind that come via the practices of psychoanalysis. I work to explain how Fischer situates in terms of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets and other avant-garde poetic movements. I explore how Fischer's innovative style(s) work within his poetic practices in "Praise," an extended journal/diary poem from Precisely The Point Being Made and the Cage/MacLow practices of releasing of ego and agency in writing methods. I also look at how such journal/diary poems compare to other poetic "mind models" within American Modernism. My chapters on Fischer culminate in a discussion, with significant close readings, of his book Success.

This dissertation explores the innovation and creativity behind elite Gelukpa thinking and writing about Buddhist place in Tibet in the long eighteenth century. It argues that writing about place offered Geluk thinkers a way to embed themselves in the land and history of Tibet, giving a rooted support to their expanding influence. More broadly, it demonstrates a growing spatialization of religious thought in Tibet and reveals a continuous and dynamic conversation around Tibetan Buddhist place and the nature of Buddhist space. This conversation went to the heart of matters of history, power, religion, and aesthetics and was tied intimately to the historical context of its production. To contextualize the period of Gelukpa growth, I begin by presenting the history of Tibetan Buddhist place writing across the longue durée. Based on my collection and analysis of over 400 place writing texts, including guidebooks, histories, poetry, and ritual texts, I suggest for the first time a periodization for this history, delineating distinct phases in the development of place writing across time. This periodization reveals that at most points throughout this history, Nyingma writers dominated place writing production. From the twelfth to seventeenth centuries, they set the standard for traditional place writing genres like guidebook literature. Beginning at the end of the seventeenth century, however, Gelukpa authors joined the conversation with great energy, producing both traditional and new styles of place writing in greater numbers than ever seen before. Why did the long eighteenth century see a burgeoning of place writing, both generally and by Gelukpa authors, specifically, and what characterized these new texts? I explore these questions by looking more closely at the work of three Gelukpa writers. First, I show how place writing was part of the Gelukpa rise to political and institutional dominance by an analysis of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s use of the supine demoness narrative in his efforts to unify Tibet under his government. Gelukpa place writing of this period was forced to grapple with earlier Nyingma narratives that in many cases dominated the conversation. Sumpa Khenpo’s Annals of Blue Lake offers an example of the creativity with which writers presented their new visions for Buddhist place in Tibet. Finally, I look at the poetry of Tukwan Lozang Chökyi Nyima as evidenced of the incorporation of new spatial configurations and the cultural exchange happening due to increased interactions with the Qing capital and imperial patronage. These snapshots ultimately show that the Gelukpa used place writing as part of its efforts to cement a growing influence politically, geographically, and culturally in Tibet and across Asia in the long eighteenth century. Just as importantly, however, these examples exhibit the creative power of writers in shaping the Buddhist landscape of Tibet. Through an analysis of an array of place writing texts, this dissertation brings to light one moment in the long history of Tibetan Buddhist place writing and demonstrates that Buddhist place has been a site of dynamic conversation (and often contestation) throughout that history.