Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay
When we discuss the cross-cultural relationships of Euro-American modernists we often fall between the poles of either celebrating the ‘coming together of traditions’ or suspiciously decrying the power play involved. A case in point is the divergent critical understanding most often posited of Ez...
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Institute of English Studies
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies |
| Online Access: | http://www.anglica.ia.uw.edu.pl/images/pdf/27-1-articles/Anglica-27-1-7-Vali.pdf |
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| author | Abid Vali |
| author_facet | Abid Vali |
| author_sort | Abid Vali |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When we discuss the cross-cultural relationships of Euro-American modernists we
often fall between the poles of either celebrating the ‘coming together of traditions’ or
suspiciously decrying the power play involved. A case in point is the divergent critical
understanding most often posited of Ezra Pound’s relationship to the materials he produced
from Ernest Fenollosa’s notes – notably Classical Chinese poetry in the form of
Cathay (1915). The fi rst position is Hugh Kenner’s who holds that its meaning, its primary
function, was as an anti-WWI volume, rather than as any representation of Chinese poetry
or an extension of Imagism (1971, 202–204). In seeming opposition to this vision
of an ideal aesthetic come at by the application of genius, we have those who highlight
the source material of Fenollosa’s notes to discuss various modes of Pound as translator.
Interestingly, these critics, who resist the Kennerian celebration of Poundian genius and
insist that Pound is engaged here in an act of translation, “essentially … appropriative”
(Xie 232), or otherwise, also reinforce a reading whereby “the precise nature of the translator’s
authorship remains unformulated, and so the notion of authorial originality continues”
(Venuti 6). This is the issue I wish to address when we study the disparities between
Fenollosa’s notes and the Cathay poems, i.e. Pound’s own choices with regard to those
poems’ content, as a key chapter in the study of transnational collaboration. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-071cbbbd649e41d78d5184d011c4be75 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0860-5734 0860-5734 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | Institute of English Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-071cbbbd649e41d78d5184d011c4be752025-01-02T10:06:10ZengInstitute of English StudiesAnglica. An International Journal of English Studies0860-57340860-57342018-10-0127198110Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s CathayAbid Vali0American University of Kuwait When we discuss the cross-cultural relationships of Euro-American modernists we often fall between the poles of either celebrating the ‘coming together of traditions’ or suspiciously decrying the power play involved. A case in point is the divergent critical understanding most often posited of Ezra Pound’s relationship to the materials he produced from Ernest Fenollosa’s notes – notably Classical Chinese poetry in the form of Cathay (1915). The fi rst position is Hugh Kenner’s who holds that its meaning, its primary function, was as an anti-WWI volume, rather than as any representation of Chinese poetry or an extension of Imagism (1971, 202–204). In seeming opposition to this vision of an ideal aesthetic come at by the application of genius, we have those who highlight the source material of Fenollosa’s notes to discuss various modes of Pound as translator. Interestingly, these critics, who resist the Kennerian celebration of Poundian genius and insist that Pound is engaged here in an act of translation, “essentially … appropriative” (Xie 232), or otherwise, also reinforce a reading whereby “the precise nature of the translator’s authorship remains unformulated, and so the notion of authorial originality continues” (Venuti 6). This is the issue I wish to address when we study the disparities between Fenollosa’s notes and the Cathay poems, i.e. Pound’s own choices with regard to those poems’ content, as a key chapter in the study of transnational collaboration.http://www.anglica.ia.uw.edu.pl/images/pdf/27-1-articles/Anglica-27-1-7-Vali.pdf |
| spellingShingle | Abid Vali Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies |
| title | Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay |
| title_full | Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay |
| title_fullStr | Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay |
| title_short | Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Ezra Pound’s Cathay |
| title_sort | genius appropriation and transnational collaboration in ezra pound s cathay |
| url | http://www.anglica.ia.uw.edu.pl/images/pdf/27-1-articles/Anglica-27-1-7-Vali.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abidvali geniusappropriationandtransnationalcollaborationinezrapoundscathay |