American Scholars: Pound and Emerson

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. "In many ways, focusing on the topic of Pound and education seems at once self-evident and sharply problematic, given the poet's numerous rants against a reductive pedagogy based, as he complained again and again, on the ossified procedures of rote memorization, the simple recitation of facts, and the fetishization of biographical minutiae. By contrast, he sought to promote a dynamic, frankly evaluative emphasis on the cultivation of critical taste, the historically informed appreciation of literary value, and the comparative assessment of a given writer's significance viewed in relation to work produced both within his own linguistic heritage and in other languages across a range of distinct cultural traditions. In other words, in many ways Pound anticipated and advocated for a kind of critical approach to (again mainly literary) education that we currently strive to uphold. As in so many other instances, especially amid the realm of contemporary poetry, we again find ourselves abiding by terms that Pound helped to establish through his relentless and polymath cultural evangelism. Hence, a consideration of Pound's views on education substantially complicates commonly held perceptions (which all too often serve to validate simple dismissals) of him as a conservative, even reactionary, aesthete and thinker. We have therefore chosen essays that highlight, rather than evade or suppress, the contradictions and vexed affiliations enlivening his thought and underscore the continuing relevance of his work."—from the Introduction EZRA POUND AND EDUCATION features work by Gail MacDonald, Anne Birien, Michael Webster, Andrew John Miller, Michael Thomas Davis and Cameron McWhirter, Alec Marsh, Peter Nicholls, Milton L. Welch, Alan Golding, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Bob Perelman. The volume also includes essays by Hamilton students Molly Wilson, Jake Hartnett, and Justin Jones, and Colgate students Jasmine V. Bailey, Lucas Meeker, and Ashley Lazevnick