An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Roxana Preda ( Digital Scholarship Visiting Research Fellowship 2021; University of Edinburgh):
"Literature is news that STAYS news": Ezra Pound and his Chinese History Cantos (1938)
Abstract:
The American poet Ezra Pound is the author of the long poem The Cantos, conceived as a suite of 117 poems on various themes written between 1915 and 1969. The sections of the poem, published in 1925, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, 1955, 1959, 1969, are of varying length; nevertheless, starting with what is generally called “the middle cantos” in 1934, sections were usually conceived in batches of ten or eleven. However, in 1940, Pound made an exception by publishing a diptych: Cantos LII-LXXI was a full section of twenty cantos written in 1938 and 1939, the first ten dealing with the history of China from the beginnings until the 18th century (cantos 53-61 with a preamble in canto 52), and the last ten (cantos 62-71) dealing with the biography of John Adams (1735-1827), the second president of the United States. The eccentricity of this pairing has never ceased to be a dilemma to readers and critics.
My talk is going to concentrate on the Chinese history cantos part of this diptych (nos. 53 to 61). I will try to answer the question why Pound decided to devote nine cantos to the history of China and what this meant for his conception of the poem as a whole, its significance and its role. To answer this question, I will look at three temporalities: the years and context of their composition (1938-39); the timeframe within the cantos themselves (beginning of time-1780); and finally, the historical moment of readers today (2014-2021).
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/85737261868
Passcode: 2U9tS7RH