Late Modernist Poetics: From Pound to Prynne

Front Cover
Manchester University Press, May 6, 2005 - Literary Criticism - 230 pages

This book explores the uncanny afterlife of modernist ideals in the second half of the twentieth century. Rejecting the familiar notion that modernism dissolved during the 1930s, it argues that the fusion of rationalism and mysticism which characterises modernist poetics was sustained long after its politics had been discredited by the events of World War Two.

The book's central concern is why the aesthetic mysticism that Walter Benjamin called the faith of those 'who made common cause with Fascism' continued to be a guiding principle for literary elites and countercultural movements alike. New light is shed on the relationship between occultism and the Pound tradition, especially in terms of Pound's influence on post-1945 Anglo-American poetry, and a critical theory of 'late modernism' is offered which shows how belated notions of cultural redemption have survived in contemporary poetry.

This wide-ranging contextual study focuses on the poetry of Ezra Pound, Charles Olson, Paul Celan, and J H Prynne, and explores the development of modernist culture through its theories of phenomenology, psychoanalysis, science, ethnography, and ancient history.

 

Contents

Acknowledgements page ix
1
Hermetic poetry and late modernism
14
Ezra Pound and secret wisdom
52
Charles Olson and C G Jung
90
J H Prynne
117
Heidegger Trakl Derrida and Prynne
144
Obscurity fragmentation and the uncanny in Prynne and Celan
167
Bibliography
209
Index
221
Copyright

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Late Modernist Poetics: From Pound to Prynne
Anthony Mellors
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Common terms and phrases

abstract aesthetic Analytical Psychology archetypes argues Aristeas becomes Borch-Jacobsen C. G. Jung calls Cambridge Cantos Cavalcanti Charles Olson Christian Collected Prose concept counter-word criticism culture Dasein Derrida divine Donald Davie Eliot essay Ezra Pound Faber fact figure fragmentation Heidegger Heidegger's Hermetic human idea ideal identity ideology interpretation J. H. Prynne Jacques Derrida Jung Jung's Lacan language Late Modernism late modernist light literal literary London magic Maximus IV Maximus Poems meaning metaphor metaphysics modernist text mysticism myth mythic nature notion obscurity occult origin Paul Celan Pedantic Note pejorocracy philosophy poem's poet poetic political postmodernism Projective Verse Prynne's poetry question radical reader reading redemption reference rhetoric Riddel ritual romantic sacred sense shaman signified spiritual Surette symbolic T. S. Eliot textual theory thing thought tion tradition Trans transcendent translation Trotter uncanny unheimlich unity University Press White Stones word writes

About the author (2005)

Anthony Mellors is a Research Fellow in English at the University of Central England.

Bibliographic information

TitleLate Modernist Poetics: From Pound to Prynne
Angelaki Humanities, ISSN 1759-5282
AuthorAnthony Mellors
PublisherManchester University Press, 2005
ISBN0719058856, 9780719058851
Length230 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Literary Criticism / Poetry
Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory
Philosophy / General
Poetry / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
  
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