Title: The Genesis and Qualities of Malawian Poet Jack Mapanje’s Creation

Abstract: Jack Mapanje is a Malawian poet with an international reputation. His poems are very popular in the English world on account of their blazing emotion, profound thought, rich cultural qualityand unique aesthetic meaning. From the pespective of start in creative writing, the characteristics appearing in Mapanje’s poetry are closely related to his personal understanding of art and life subjectively, and the historical context and era environment objectively. Throughout Mapanje’s entire creative career, he was deeply influenced by oral tradition and colonial history during years as a student, and he later experienced a long period of imprisonment and exile due to the tyranny of the Banda government. These factors, combined with Mapanje’s artistic expressive talent, not only show unique features in different stages of his poetry, but also are highly representative in Malawian literature and African poetry. In a sense, from the perspective of literature, culture and history, Mapanje’s works provide a vivid basis for the construction of a China-Africa community with a shared future.

Keywords: Jack Mapanje, creative genesis, Malawi literature, African poetry

Author: Zhongshan Wan, School of Humanities, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; Xiaomeng Sun, Professor, School of African Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2022.03.003