
The Poetics of Impersonality
T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound
Maud Ellmann(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 23. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-7486-9129-6 (ISBN)
Description
In this classic work, Maud Ellmann examines T. S. Eliot's and Ezra Pound's criticism in terms of what she calls the 'poetics of impersonality'. She convincingly shows that Eliot's and Pound's attempts to overcome personality merely reinstated it in a new guise. And her superb and entirely original readings of the major poems of the modernist canon have earned a lasting place in criticism.
Following an analysis of Eliot's relation to Bergson, Ellmann goes on to analyse Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' and the later After Strange Gods, the early poems, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets. She then turns to Pound's Personae, particularly 'Mauberley', and the Cantos. Ellmann looks for the contradictions inherent in modernist literary ideology and deftly teases out their implications. Stylish and perceptive, this book marked the debut of a major literary critic, and it has as much resonance today as it did on first publication.
Following an analysis of Eliot's relation to Bergson, Ellmann goes on to analyse Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' and the later After Strange Gods, the early poems, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets. She then turns to Pound's Personae, particularly 'Mauberley', and the Cantos. Ellmann looks for the contradictions inherent in modernist literary ideology and deftly teases out their implications. Stylish and perceptive, this book marked the debut of a major literary critic, and it has as much resonance today as it did on first publication.
Reviews / Votes
Maud Ellmann's book is vivid and original. The author is very intelligent and has done her reading with resourcefulness and penetration. * Frank Kermode * The local analyses, the verbal felicities, the luminous details of Maud Ellmann's book are striking and inventive. The great strength of the book, as I see it, lies in the productive convergence of post-structuralist theory and a scrupulous historical sense... (The reading of the poems) is original, supple, and provoking. * Michael Levenson, Professor of English, University of Virginia *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
263 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-9129-6 (9780748691296)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2019
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Maud Ellmann is Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Professor of the Development of the Novel in English at the University of Chicago. Her books include The Poetics of Impersonality: T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, The Hunger Artists: Starving, Writing, and Imprisonment, and Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism. She has also published widely on modern literature and literary theory, feminism, and deconstruction.
Author
Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Professor of the Development of the Novel in EnglishUniversity of Chicago