Modern Poetics and Hemispheric American Cultural Studies (Studies of the Americas)

With the rise of globalization, the American hemisphere has been integrated economically and politically. But what is the role of culture in this new integration? To what extent do the Americas share a common culture? This book starts from the premise that cultural conflict is inherent to all American cultures. Thus, the only way to study national cultures hemispherically is to examine the inter-cultural collisions both between American nations, and within them. Through readings of key 20th century texts, Read argues that such conflicts form a distinctly poetic process. Modernist and vanguardista poets sought to make the language of cultural conflict – translation – into a concrete reality in its own right, the language of the Americas.

With the rise of globalization, the American hemisphere has been integrated economically and politically. But what is the role of culture in this new integration? To what extent do the Americas share a common culture? This book starts from the premise that cultural conflict is inherent to all American cultures. Thus, the only way to study national cultures hemispherically is to examine the inter-cultural collisions both between American nations, and within them. Through readings of key 20th century texts, Read argues that such conflicts form a distinctly poetic process. Modernist and vanguardista poets sought to make the language of cultural conflict – translation – into a concrete reality in its own right, the language of the Americas.

Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 Preface......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 32 Credits......Page 34 Abbreviations......Page 36 1 Enter the Cannibal: Dependency, Migration, and Textuality in William Carlos Williams’s Spring and All......Page 38 2 The Reversible World: America as Dissonance in Mário de Andrade’s Paulicéia desvairada......Page 96 3 Verse Reverse Verse: Fake Autobiographies, Lost Translations, and New Originals of Vicente Huidobro’s Altazor......Page 140 4 Alien Sedition: Anti-Semitism and Censorship in The Cantos of Ezra Pound......Page 194 Notes......Page 234 Bibliography......Page 252 B......Page 260 F......Page 261 M......Page 262 P......Page 263 V......Page 264 Z......Page 265 As the world becomes increasingly globalized, the integration of cultures within nations has become more and more relevant. Read takes a poetic approach to the concept of cultural conflict within nations and adds a new perspective that has rarely been seen in debate.