Ezra Pound and His Classical Sources - (Historicizing Modernism) by Jonathan Ullyot (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book uses Ezra Pound's The Cantos as a lens to understand modernism's ambition to revolutionize literature through mythical and scientific methods. Homer's Odyssey plays a unique methodological and structural role in The Cantos. The Cantos translates, interprets, abridges, adapts, critiques, parodies, trivializes, allegorizes, and "ritualizes" the Odyssey. Partly inspired by Joyce's use of different literary styles or "technics" in Ulysses, and partly inspired by medieval classicism and 19th century philology, Pound uses a plethora of methods to translate Homer and other classical texts. This book argues that The Cantos is a modernist vision of the Matter of Troy, a term used by medieval authors to designate the cycle of texts based on the Trojan war and its aftereffects, including the nostoi (returns) of the Greek heroes.

This is the first study to explore how medieval classicism and translation informs Pound's mythical method and to systematically outline the variety and evolution of Pound's Odyssey translations in The Cantos.

Review Quotes

"Elegantly written and meticulously researched ... deserves praise for making the philological discussions in this study accessible to an interdisciplinary readership" --Translation and Literature

"The chapters devoted to the Pisan and post-Pisan Cantos, where Ullyot's close readings are at their best, offer a new and relevant contribution to Poundian scholarship." --English Studies

About the Author