Pastoral, pragmatism, and twentieth-century American poetry

✍ Scribed by Mikkelsen, Ann Marie

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 255
• Series: Modern and contemporary poetry and poetics
• Edition: 1st ed
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Pastoral, Pragmatism, and Twentieth-Century American Poetryargues that pastoral has remained a significant mode in modern American poetry, often as a means of talking about who the ideal self or poet should be and how the poet fits into the larger national community. Influenced by the work of William James and John Dewey, Ann Mikkelsen deftly argues that the “pragmatic pastoral” mode depicts a transitory, evolving, experimental state of being rather than a static, ironic, or nostalgic worldview. By re-evaluating relationships between the poet and the people, the poem and life experience, this book demonstrates that these pastorals reflect the ethical dilemmas of a society in flux.

✦ Table of Contents

Coverpage......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
1 Pastoral Ideology and the Pragmatic Response......Page 32
2 Tramp Culture and the Cult of Pan:Robert Frost’s Pastoral of Class Mobility......Page 50
3 “The Truth About Us”: Pastoral, Pragmatism, and William Carlos Williams’s Paterson......Page 78
4 “Fat! Fat! Fat! Fat!”: Wallace Stevens’s Figurations of Masculinity......Page 104
5 “The Mooring of Starting Out”: John Ashbery’s Pastoral Origins......Page 134
Conclusion: Late Twentieth-Century Pastoral: Gertrude Stein, Lyn Hejinian, Lisa Robertson, and the Continuity of a Mode......Page 162
Notes......Page 186
Bibliography......Page 220
Index......Page 240