Radical empiricists. Five modernist close readers PDF
Preview Radical empiricists. Five modernist close readers
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi RADICAL EMPIRICISTS Five Modernist Close Readers OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi Radical Empiricists Five Modernist Close Readers HELEN THAVENTHIRAN 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #HelenThaventhiran2015 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2015 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014958319 ISBN 978–0–19–871342–5 Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi Acknowledgements ‘Inscriptions, dedications—any printed personal acknowledgment—may be inconsiderate’, when ‘complexities ignited by gratitude’, are so great (MarianneMoore).Thelistthatfollowsisradicallysimple,inconsiderate even,againstwhatitacknowledges. ThebookhashaditshomeinthreeCollegesandintheFacultyofEnglish attheUniversityofCambridge,allwithaninfluenceonitsdevelopment, andwiththeirassociatedformsofintellectualandfinancialsupport.Some ofitsfoundationswerelaidatKing’sCollege,whereIcompletedaPhDon the criticism of William Empson. This was funded by the AHRC, and supervisedwithunfailingcare,wit,andgoodsensebyStefanCollini,whose support has continued to be invaluable. The book took shape at Christ’s College,thankstothegenerousprovisionofaJuniorResearchFellowship, andofgoodcompany,particularlythatofSophieReadandDanWakelin, bothofwhomwereencouragingearlyreadersofsomeofthismaterial.Ithas beencompletedatRobinson,partlyintheintersticesofteachingPractical Criticism.Here,IowethankstotheWardenandfellowsfortheirwelcome andconversation;tomycolleagues,RobinKirkpatrickandSimonJarvis,for their inspirations; and to the students for their continual provocations to newthoughtsandnewphrases. Ihavehadsomebrilliantclosereadersforpartsofthisbook,andforthe earlier writings from which it stemmed, and am particularly grateful, for specific suggestions or for editorial care, to: Ned Allen, Rowan Boyson, Joe Crawford, James Jiang, Freya Johnston, Angela Leighton, Seamus Perry, Christopher Ricks, David Trotter, Becca Weir, the Robinson first years (2013–14), and to the anonymous readers at Oxford University Press. The editors at the Press have also provided important support duringtheprocessofwritingthisbook. A version of ChapterIV appeared as ‘Empson and the Orthodoxy of Paraphrase’, Essays in Criticism, 61.4, October 2011, and some paragraphs ofChapterIIappearedin‘WarLordsintheRepublicofLetters:Empsonand RichardsamongtheMandarins’,CambridgeQuarterly,41.1,March2012. Forlongyearsofencouragementinallitsforms,Ioweanimmeasurable amounttofriends,cousins,andwiderfamily.Mygreatestdebtshereareto Hilary,John,James,andLauraCrawforth;andtoperhapsmyfiercestand mostmagnificent‘critics’,JamesThaventhiran,andourson,JohnPatrick. ThisbookisdedicatedtoJoanBerry(1922–2012). OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi Contents Introduction:Modernistcriticismandthemeaningofmeaning 1 PART I: HOW TO READ I. Annotation:T.S.Eliotandmarginalcommentary 31 II. Experiment:I.A.Richardsandcriticalbathos 58 III. Emendation:WilliamEmpsonandthetextualcrux 92 PART II: HOW NOT TO READ IV. Paraphrase:WilliamEmpson’scheerfulheresies 125 V. Circumlocution:R.P.Blackmur’sfailuresofstyle 152 VI. Parataxis:MarianneMoore’sreticentsentences 179 Conclusion:Feedforward-feedback 213 Notes 225 Index 267 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,15/5/2015,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,13/5/2015,SPi Introduction Modernist criticism and the meaning of meaning I. RADICAL EMPIRICISM ‘The Poem Itself—that was what the New Criticism purported to be about’.1Criticisminthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcenturycouldappeara very empirical exercise, looking closely at quotations, words on the page, poems themselves. Ezra Pound opens his ABC of Reading (1934) with a parableforthiskindofpurescrutiny.Ateacherpresentsastudentwitha specimen(hereafishstandsinforapoem).Theteacherasksthestudent to describe this specimen; the student, insulted by the simplicity of the exercise, is prompt with a textbook definition, to which the teacher responds with an instruction to look again, describe again. The student doesso,differently,andisurgedtocontinueforsometime.‘Attheendof threeweeks,’theanecdoteconcludes,‘thefishwasinanadvancedstateof decomposition, but the student knew something about it’.2 Critical knowledge,forthemodernists,takestheformofradicallycloseattention. Thisequationtransformedtheoldfunctionsofcriticism(appreciation, instruction,‘gossipandpraise’3)anditsforms(touchstones,impressions, moraldeductions)intosomenewtermsandtechniquesofreading.Ofthe ‘old’ criticism, a near caricature appears in a work from early in the century, Stopford Brooke’s Studies in Poetry (1907), in which he writes: ‘ThebestexamplesofKeats’Odesneedneitherpraisenorblame.Theyare above criticism, pure gold of poetry—virgin gold [...] for these high things of poetry come forth from the spiritual depths of man’.4 Into this appreciativeatmosphere,modernismbroughtitstenaciousanalyticalprac- tices and frequently acerbic judgements. Very little was ‘abovecriticism’. From primer sentences such as ‘The cat sat on the mat’, to the formal involutions of lyric poetry, critics found opportunities to exercise their powers of verbal analysis, scrutiny, practical criticism, close reading, ‘minuteexamination’.5
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