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Fri, 10 Sep 1999 11:02:35 -0700 |
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and don't forget Kathryne Lindberg's _Reading Pound Reading_ --
I'm not sure why the observation about the small number of women scholars
on the Pound list is connected to the hypothesis about Pound's work
attracting a narrower range of mentalities -- The work itself certainly
appears to call upon a wide-ranging mentality in its reader --
I suspect the more accurate hypotheses are to be found in sociological
observation -- That is, assuming that most readers encounter Pound first
through some of the better-known poetry selections (and may thus, at first,
be less cognizant of the full range of his politics and prejudices), it may
well be the case that English studies offer varied rewards and pressures
that might have the effect of steering younger people generally (and
perhaps women in particular) in other directions -- While I have not at all
agreed with some of the opinions expressed here about the current state of
graduate education in the U.S., I think it is demonstrably true that poetry
has been slighted in recent years. This was odd enough during the
ascendance of poststructuralist theory, as so many of its best-known
writers write so frequently about poets, but becomes even odder in the
contexts of new historicism and cultural studies. I would think Pound's
work a gold mine for cultural studies -- And why aren't there more
critical works like Barbara Johnson's essay on apostrophe and abortion?
Probably because there are so few seminars in poetics offered these days --
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