Perhaps I'm wrong, but in the interest of accurate colonial history....if
we're talking about Indonesia, wouldn't it have been the Dutch rather than
the British guilty of this nasty deracination? Or is it the British but in
India?
Jeff Twitchell-Waas
 
----- Original Message -----
From: K Stevens <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: Imagined Communities
 
 
> Robert, thank you for your explanation.  One more important aspect of
> Anderson's theory is the journey experience of first-generation
> nationalists in Southeast Asia.  As you probably remember, Anderson
> observed that in order to more efficiently manage the colonies, England
> recruited native-born Indonesians to a central point (Jakarta) where
> they were trained clerical skills, English, and reading and writing.
> These recruits developed a sense of community with their fellow
> students while becoming more and more isolated from their former
> villages.  Isolation and this journey experience then contributed to
> development of imagined communities.
>
> Pound's isolation in Italy, in particular during the war, likewise
> contributed to his imagined community.  Of course Pound's imagined
> community was a lot more imagined than the "nations" that emerged in
> Southeast Asia.
>
> My biggest question about Pound is why has there been so much emphasis
> on his European background and not on his studies and writing of
> American politics and Confucianism.  Is it because the academic world
> just hasn't gotten there yet?  Or is it because there is an argument
> out there that explains his preference for European culture over
> American culture.  I remember reading about Pound's frequent trips to
> the cinema to watch American film.  He was often seen absorbed in the
> images, cackling, and wearing a cowboy hat with his feet up on the seat
> in front of him.
>
> Pound once said that fascism was the best option for Italy, but
> inappriopriate for the United States.  What did he think was
> appropriate for the United States?  I think that it was a political
> system modeled after Jefferson fused with an ethical system modeled
> after Confucianism.  I apologize, but I have a full-time job outside of
> academia and can't afford to research the topic further at this time.
> But I'm still interested in your comments.
>
> --- Robert Kibler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > my dissertation looked at the slow turn toward the east that pound
> > made. Just as there was always a distance between Pound's
> > pronouncements of what he intended to do in poetry, so too there was
> > a distance between the time he began to advocate Confucius and an
> > Eastern sensibility, so to speak, and his ability to actually embody
> > it. Mostly, Pound is a westerner.
> >
> > I had a seminar with Benedict Anderson, and Nationalism is an
> > avocation of mine. Walter Benjamin is Anderson's intellectual
> > overseer, and what Anderson has to say about imagined communities
> > derives from Benjamin's work, such as in his "Illuminations."  Sorry,
> > don't have either Benjamin of Anderson in front of me.
> >    Anderson's basic idea of the imagined community points to the role
> > the print media plays in creating a nation. Newspapers build a
> > community because they deliver the same information to a group of
> > people who live within a certain geogrpahical expanse of space. Any
> > give newspaper reader, sat down with his coffee over the paper, does
> > not know the other thousands, the other hundreds of thousands who are
> > reading the same news as is he or she, but each reader knows those
> > others are there, reading the same news. The net result is a
> > community that is imagined in the minds of each individual, aware of
> > those who know what he knows. Of course, the trick to creating a
> > nation is simply to control the content of that daily newspaper. Mao
> > knew this. Hitler knew this. Actually, all of those in control of
> > imagined communities know this. By manipulating the news, it is
> > possible to have a tear roll down the eye of a young troop as the
> > national anthem is played, even though really, that nation has been
> > simply created where none before existed.
> >    You can see lots of possibilities for working Pound into or
> > against the idea of nation-building--and in fact, presentations to
> > the Pound society at the MLA two years ago addressed a few such
> > possibilities.
> >
> > >>> K Stevens <[log in to unmask]> 12/10 6:58 PM >>>
> > > Lucas Klein wrote:
> > >
> > > > but I've lost the topic of Pound. Pound's writing seems to me
> > > essentially Western, based on a great misunderstanding of Chinese
> > > and Asian philosophy, language, tradition, poetry, etc. I haven't
> > > done
> > > anywhere near the amount of research required to back up this
> > > kind of statement, but well, is there anyone willing either to
> > refute
> > > or
> > > support the idea that Pound just didn't get Asia?
> >
> > I have a question about a project based on this idea, that Pound was
> > essentially Western.  I wrote a brief thesis a few years ago using
> > Benedict Anderson's theory of imagined communities to argue that
> > Pound
> > created his own "imagined community."  It began with his
> > participation
> > in London/Paris newspapers and politics.  Later, his "nation" was
> > "populated" by his pen pals (or American politician recipients of his
> > letters) and "recipients" of his radio broadcasts.  His
> > interpretation
> > of Confucius/Mencius and the writings of Jefferson/Adams fueled his
> > hope for an American renaissance.  In a way, Pound's
> > misunderstandings
> > of Chinese philosophy reflect a westernization of it..
> >
> > Throwing this at all of you in such brevity without explaining
> > Benedict
> > Anderson's theory on nationalism is not fair.  As a non-academic now,
> > my research has slowed down.  But I would like some input from anyone
> > familiar with Anderson's theory on nationalism.  My impression of
> > Pound
> > has been from this angle (Pound as expatriot patriot American with a
> > Mencius twist).  Any comments or suggestions?  And for those of you
> > not
> > familiar with Benedict Anderson, what can you say about the utopian
> > Pound?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Kristen Stevens
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