The Poetics of Fascism: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Paul de ManMorrison examines the legacy of the modernist poetics of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, as it relates to current theoretical orthodoxies, and traces its influence on the current crisis in post-structural literary theory. Morrison reads the politics of post-structural theory in relation to the socio-cultural arguments espoused in the poetry and prose by Pound and Eliot, and reveals a continuity between that theory and high modernism's tendency towards fascism. Without reducing the political implications of poetry to mere caricature and without slighting the force and fact of literary mediation, Morrison has produced a book that will reshape the discussion of the social dimension of modernism. He concludes with a provocative analysis of deconstruction and the work of Paul de Man, and makes a case for a new post-structural theory that can accommodate history. |
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aesthetic aestheticism anti-Semitism argues argument bourgeois Canto LXXIV capital capitalist celebration characterizes contemporary criticism critique culture D. A. Miller Dante define Derrida discourse economic essay Ezra Pound fact failure Fascism fetishization figure Four Quartets Fredric Jameson function Gerontion hereafter cited historical human ideology individual Italian Fascism Jacques Derrida Jews language Le Soir liberal linguistic literary literature logic lyric Man's marxism means metaphor Miller modern Mussolini Naming of Cats narrative Nazi never object Odysseus opposition Paul Pisan Cantos poem poet poetic poetry political possible Postmodernism poststructuralism poststructuralist practice presupposes proper name Prufrock radical relation religion Resistance to Theory rhetoric sense signified social Soir articles speaks specific structure subversive T. S. Eliot teleology theoretical things thought tion Tiresias totalitarian totalization tradition trans translatio translation tropes Ulysses University Press usury Waste Land word writing York