2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Ezra Pound's Noh Experience and "Abstraction"
| Project/Area Number |
18520189
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Nagoya University |
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Principal Investigator |
NAGAHATA Akitoshi Nagoya University, Graduate School oflanguages and Cultures, Professor (90208041)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Ezra Pound / abstraction / Noh |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research is to re-evaluate Pound's encounter with the Noh by elucidating its role in the formation of his views on the "image" and "abstraction." The research into Pound's texts, such as 'Nob" or Accomplishment : A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan, Plays Modeled on the Nob, Gaudier-Brzeska : A Memoir has shown that (1) Pound's interpretation of the Noh, especially his characterization of it in 'Nob" or Accomplishment, to the effect that Noh is .an image, which is not simply a pictorial image but some abstract and complex form produced by the unity of its "costume, motion, verse, and music" is closely linked to his views on the image and abstraction put forth in the movement of Imagism which Pound led around the same time ; (2) that there is a strong possibility that the Noh reinforced his formative poetics of "Ideogrammic Method," the primary writing principle in the composition of The Cantos ; and (3) that the apparent lack of emphasis on its form as an abstract and complex image in Women of Trachis, a play Pound composed later modeled on the Noh, could reflect the alleged receding of the "Ideogrammic method" in the late Cantos. This research, I believe, has shown the significant role played by Pound's encounter with the Noh texts-along with other factors, such as Fenollosa's treatise on the Chinese characters-in establishing Pound's poetic principle in the 1910s. Future research plans in relation to this study include a comprehensive study on American modernist poetry and "abstraction," which will combine the achievements of the present study and the studies on abstraction in Stevens, Stein, Eliot and Crane, as well as other modernist poets
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