The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot, and Pound

The politics of Yeats, Eliot and Pound have long been a source of discomfort and difficulty for literary critics and cultural historians. In The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot and Pound, Michael North offers a subtle reading of these issues by linking aesthetic modernism with an attempt in all these writers to resolve basic contradictions in modern liberalism. The many contradictions of modernism, which is seen as inwardly personal yet impersonal, subjective and yet beholden to tradition, fragmented and yet whole, mark the reappearance in art of these political contradictions. Though Yeats, Eliot and Pound certainly attempted to resolve in art problems that could not be resolved in actuality, their very attempt resulted in a politicised aesthetic, one that confessed their inability to do so. Yet this aesthetic retained an element of critical power, precisely because it could not cover up the political contradictions that concerned it; the poetry remains a valid criticism of the status quo and even in its failure suggests the beginnings of an alternative. Michael North offers a subtle reading of the issues by linking aesthetic modernism with an attempt in all these writers to resolve basic contradictions in modern liberalism. Though Yeats, Eliot, and Pound certainly attempted to resolve in art problems that could not be resolved in actuality, their very attempt resulted in a politicized aesthetic, one that confessed their inability to do so. The book includes accounts of the specific political activities of the three writers, reinterpretations of their critical theories in light of their politics, and rereadings of some of their major works, including The Tower, The Waste Land, and Pisan Cantos. Ch. I.w.b. Yeats: Cultural Nationalism: 1. The Isle Of Freedom -- 2. The Success And Failure Of The Irish Revival -- 3. Major Gregory's Responsibilities -- 4. The Leaning Tower -- 5. Senator And Blueshirt -- Ch. 2. T.s. Eliot: Conservativism: 1. Prufrock, Philosophy, And Politics -- 2. The Critic And The Crisis Of Historicism -- 3. The Waste Land -- 4. Eliot's Conservatism -- 5. 'little Gidding' -- Ch. 3. Ezra Pound: Fascism: 1. Politics And The Luminous Detail -- 2. History, Value, And The Cantos -- 3. The Fascist Bargain -- 4. The Pisan Cantos. Michael North. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This text includes accounts of the specific political activities of Yeats, Eliot and Pound, reinterpretations of their critical theories in light of their politics, and rereadings of some of their major works, including "The Tower", "The Waste Land", and "Pisan Cantos"