Without question Pound is difficult. So is Dante, whom I also teach. I
just finished another Dante seminar last semester (and I taught the same
material to an undergraduate class as well). I told both groups that I had
first read Dante thirty years ago, and felt that I was about half way
towards understanding him.
The graduate seminar went very well. I had sixteen bright, engaged
students, who lamented the weekly quiz, but whose questions and discussion
challenged me. The undergraduate students also lamented the weekly quiz. A
half-dozen of them were completely engaged throughout the course. Many,
however, noticeably faded when we came to Purgatorio and Paradiso. The
course starts with several weeks on selected Provencal, Sicilian, and
Italian troubadour poems, then we do the Vita Nuova, then the Commedia.
Consider that we have had the advantage of nearly seven hundred years of
Dante scholarship in our current approach to Dante. Yet he is still
daunting. Pound's conscious model was Dante, and The Cantos is a formidable
work. The reader must invest time.
For me, they are worth the effort. And I would rather spend my time reading
and rereading Dante and Pound than reading what passes for prose in most
journals in my profession.
Cheers!
Tim Redman
-----Original Message-----
From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stoner James
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 12:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A complete (ly welcome) change of subject
Jay,
My recent posts assumes the great difficulty of Pound. My points raised
have to do with finding ways of teaching and getting young people
interested in Pounds work, among others important issues regarding his
poetics, politics, and the relationship between his poetics and politics,
as well as EzP's influence on culture, postmodernism, etc. I don't think
I need to revisit the issues raised; they are important issues, and will
come up from time to time. If it helps, think of me as Wei En-Lei, Pound,
Berstein, Steiner, (and many others, although I'm not sure about Steiner,
I will consult my psychic on that one :) now resurrected, as James
Berstein Steiner Stoner Pound En Lei, if doesn't bother me really. I am
glad to _be_ a Pound-like personae. I'm afraid that Pound would have been
proud.
I'm off to Georgia and will only check my e-mail once or twice, so feel
comfort in the fact that you can go unquestioned for most of my absence.
Smile people, it WILL be a great year for us all! We are already off to a
great start.
respectfully,
Ezstoner
Jay said:
I thought this was a Pound list. Certainly in the past, before the long
tempus tacendi, it was often very interesting.
The recent spate of adolescent whinings about how difficult our poet is
(why
do people even respond to that stuff? isn't it just a given?), and
questions
about how to teach Zane Grey has me a little confused.
On the other hand, I thanks Charles, Carlo, and some others for their
insights, and especially their ability to form a lively sentence.
I almost miss Wei En-Lei (spelling). Who'd ever've thunk that?
Jay Anania
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com
|
