The Pool Group and the Quest for Anthropological Universality : The Humane Images of Modernism

Pool was an avant-garde group that originated in 1927 in Britain and was active under this name until 1933. The group consisted of the well-known modernist poet H.D., the English writer Bryher, and the young Scottish writer and artist Kenneth Macpherson. All three were first and foremost writers, who at one point discovered film as another modern, experimental medium of artistic expression. Pool associated with almost all the iconic modernists of their time, with Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, James Joyce, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, to name only a few. In addition, due to their interest in film, they were also befriended with such influential filmmakers as Sergei Eisenstein and Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and became closely associated with Weimar Berlin film culture. Pool unites classical Modernism and modernity, two directions that are usually considered to be contradictory. The Pool phenomenon opens a new perspective onto Modernism and prompts a reconsideration of its canonical texts and figures. Contrary to many artists of Modernism, who devised highly individualistic aesthetic styles, the artists of Pool strove towards a universal art of humanity that was rooted in all-human nature and psychology. * Recovers the artist group Pool * Reconsiders modernist canonical readings * Reveals a connection between Anglo-American Modernism and Weimar Berlin film culture Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 The Pool Group: Its Formation, Financing, and Avant-garde Lifestyle 1.2 A New Humane and Universal Art 1.3 State of Research on Pool Part I Theory The Spirit of the Quest 2 The Autonomy and the Necessity of Art 2.1 The Autonomy of Art 2.1.1 Bourdieu’s Theory of the Literary Field 2.1.2 The Literary and Artistic Field of Twentieth-Century Modernism 2.1.3 The Pool Members’ Positioning within the Literary and Artistic Field of Modernism 2.1.4 Pool’s Attempt to Unite Avant-garde Aesthetics and ‘Pure’ Art with ‘Popular’ Culture 2.2 The Necessity of Art 2.2.1 The Idea of Art as a Human Necessity throughout History 2.2.2 Eibl’s Poetical Animal and the Biological Need of the Human for Art 2.2.3 The Importance of Nature and Biology for Pool and Their Art Part II Technique and Style Towards a Universal Language of Art 3 A Language Composed of Images and E/motion 3.1 Montage & Metaphor and the Stream of Narrative 3.2 Eisenstein and Cinematographic Metaphor 3.2.1 Eisenstein’s Collective Language of Emotion 3.2.2 Intellectual Film: Eisenstein’s Dialectical Language for the Masses 3.3 Imagism 3.3.1 Ezra Pound and the Clear, Objective Image 3.3.2 H.D.’s Ascetic Metaphors & Mythopoetic Montages 3.4 Collage and Photomontage – Pool’s Scrapbook and Art for the Sake of It: Playing with the Language of Human Psychology, Art and Film Technique 3.4.1 Macpherson – Dynamic Forces of Life and Nature 3.4.2 H.D. – Simple Form and Abstraction 3.4.3 Bryher – ‘Pure’ Spirit and the Descent of the Gods 3.5 Continuity: Literary Cycle of Life and Psychological-Realistic Film 3.5.1 Dorothy Richardson and the Literary Series 3.5.2 Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Film and the ‘Invisible Cut’ 3.6 Light, Vision and Film Art Part III Philosophy The Quest for a Universal Foundation of Human Life 4 Universal Sympathy and Universal Man: Pool’s Avant-gardist New Humanism 4.1 The Creative Power of Dreaming: Trans/Forming Affects into Visual Images, Symbols and Narrative 4.1.1 Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams: Human Libidinal Wish-Fulfilment and Pleasure Instincts 4.1.2 Hanns Sachs’ Community of Daydreams: From Subjective Wish-Fulfilment to the Social Function of Art 4.2 Myth Worlds and Anthropological Universalities: The Great Dynamics of Being 4.2.1 The Myth of Narcissus and Its Transformation into Psychoanalytic Concept and ‘Aesthetic Instinct’ 4.2.2 Life, Death, and Rebirth: The Universal Myth of Fertility and the Cult of Regeneration 4.2.3 Nietzsche and the Artistic Drives of Nature: Greek Tragedy as Human Psychology 4.3 In Love with Life and Creation: Pool’s Biosophy and the Homo Artes Part IV Works of Love Pool’s Humane Art or: Their Artistic Body 5 POOL Novels 5.1 Poolreflection: The Mirror and the Self-Love of Art 5.1.1 The Mythical Figures of Narcissus and the Faun 5.1.1.1 Narcissus, the Artist and the Mirror of Self-Reflection 5.1.1.2 Narcissus, the Faun and the Fountain of Life 5.1.1.3 Mythology and Mysticism – The Faun and the Poetic Vision 5.1.1.4 Metamorphoses of the Great Works of Arts 5.1.2 Bildungsroman, Künstlerroman and Love Poetry 5.1.2.1 Shakespeare’s Two Loves and the Tradition of Love Poetry 5.1.2.2 ‘Grand Love’ and ‘Human Love’ – from Narcissism to Compassion 5.1.2.3 Poolreflection – Modernist Künstlerroman in Dialogue with Joyce and Woolf 5.2 Gaunt Island: Cinematographic Fiction of Celtic Sensitivity 5.2.1 Opposing “A New Sensitivity” to Modernist Objectivity 5.2.1.1 Robin and the Artistic Principle of Love and Compassion 5.2.1.2 Geoffrey – the Poetic Principle of Divine Vision and the Sublime 5.2.1.3 Elmo, the Mythic Unconscious, and the Psychology of Fear 5.2.1.4 “Because of nerves, a face coming suddenly to the window was Grand Guignol” 5.2.1.5 The Corruption of Art and the Interaction of Macpherson’s Figures as Agents in the Literary and Artistic Field 5.2.1.6 Music and Mood: The Song of Life and the Bang of Survival 5.2.2 “Universal Regeneration”: K. Macpherson’s Gaunt Island versus T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land 5.3 Reconciling the Opposites of Dream and Reality: A Conclusion to Macpherson’s Novels 5.3.1 Poolreflection and Gaunt Island: Macpherson’s Dialectics of Art and of Human Emotion 5.3.2 Amore: Macpherson’s Last Novel Rome 12 Noon 5.4 The Other Fictional Works by POOL 5.4.1 Bryher, Civilians (1927) – “If you liked The End of St. Petersburg why not try Civilians?” 5.4.2 E.L. Black, [John Ellerman] Why Do They Like It? (1927) – An Adolescent Anti-Establishment Novel 5.4.3 Oswald Blakeston, Extra Passenger (1929) – Another of the Cinematographic Novels 6 Films by POOL Productions 6.1 Film Fragments and Lost Films 6.1.1 Wing Beat – Transforming the Poetics of Imagism into Film 6.1.1.1 H.D.’s Unpublished Essay “Wing Beat” or the Bird-Stuffers versus the Beat of Art 6.1.1.2 Advertising the Film in Close Up 6.1.2 Foothills – A Joint Venture 6.1.3 Monkey’s Moon – Happy Animal Nature 6.1.3.1 The Art of Biosophy 6.1.3.2 The History and Advertisement of the Film 6.1.4 I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside – A Satire on ‘Intellectual’ Film Criticism 6.2 Borderline: Happy Dream and Violent Passions or “Two Loves I Have of Comfort and Despair” 6.2.1 History and Historical Context of Borderline 6.2.1.1 The History and Reception of Borderline 6.2.1.2 State of Research 6.2.1.3 Confusing Sensations in Black and White 6.2.1.4 An International Interracial Artistic Collaboration – Pool and Paul Robeson, the Black Apollo of the Harlem Renaissance 6.2.2 The Symbolic Language of Borderline 6.2.2.1 Dream Symbols and Key Figures of the Imagination: The Mythic Hero Pete and the Witch 6.2.2.2 Why the Use of Intertitles When Speaking in Metaphors and Continuous Association? 6.2.2.3 The White Bacchantae and the Mentality of Lynching 6.2.2.4 Secrets of the Souls – The Signature of G.W. Pabst 6.2.2.5 The Lyre of the Black Apollo and the Wild Dance of Ecstasy – Uniting ‘High’ Art and Popular Entertainment 6.2.2.6 Friendship and Universal Sympathy, and the Various Shades of Human Life 7 POOL Architecture: The Villa KenWin 7.1 Geographical Location and Its Literary Historical Context 7.2 Modern Bauhaus Architecture in the Swiss Mountains 7.3 KenWin – The Dialectics of Classic Modern Form and Nature 7.4 Later Years through to Today (Outlook) 8 Close Up – A Popular Forum for Film and Film Culture 8.2 Wedding the Concept of the Avant-garde Little Magazines to Film Journalism and Weimar Berlin Film Culture 8.3 Macpherson’s Editorial “As Is” – Vox Populi of Film Art 8.3.1 “How furchtbar funny that an Englishman should have started Close Up” 8.3.2 Film and Anthropological Aspects of Universality 8.4 Film Journalism and Poetry: The Poetic Contributions of H.D 8.4.1 The “Projector” Poems 8.4.2 “The Cinema and the Classics” – Classic Poetics for the Public 8.5 The ‘Purely’ Experimental Literary Contributions of Gertrude Stein 8.6 Dorothy Richardson’s Serial Column “Continuous Performance” Part V ~ The End ~ 9 Conclusion: The Disintegrating Body of Pool and the Spirit of Art Works Cited Index of names Index of Subjects