Ezra Pound and Neoplatonism

Description

"This book is a detailed study of Ezra Pound's explicit and implicit use of elements of the Neoplatonic tradition in his prose and poetry, and of the way it informed his poetics as well as his political and social-economic views. This book not only discusses the ideas of those Pound considered to be leading figures in the development of Neoplatonism (such as Plotinus, Dionysus the Areopagite, Eriugena, Dante, Gemisthus Plethon, and Thomas Taylor), but, more importantly, it shows how and why Pound adapted and appropriated their notions to develop his interpretation of what he saw as an ongoing Neoplatonic tradition. Through this adaptation of Neoplatonism, Pound's work may be seen as a commentary upon this religio-philosophical tradition as well as a contribution to it." "This study incorporates new material never published before, such as typescript drafts of cantos, notes on Neoplatonic concepts, and Pound's glosses in his notebooks made while he was reading Plotinus's Enneads in the original Greek." "Moreover, this study on Pound and Neoplatonism ties in with the present interest in two aspects of Modernist writing, namely, the link between Modernism and the occult, and the reaction of Modernism to what one may call the epistemological crisis."--BOOK JACKET.

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