The "stagnant" period of American poetry: a rebuilding of the gap between American renaissance and modernism

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00459
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Rikkyo University
• Principal Investigator: Sawairi Yoji 立教大学, 文学部, 教授 (20261539)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: アメリカ詩 / アメリカン・ルネサンス / モダニズム / 米西戦争 / アメリカ文学史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study explored the undercurrents of American poetry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period known as the “stagnant” period of American poetry. The purpose was to shed light on the gap, or the so-called void, between Romanticism and Modernism. This study revealed that both Melville and Tuckerman, while pretending to follow tradition, were secretly trying to disturb it; Crane, too, was a pioneer of imagism, writing free verse with vivid, colorful images. On the other hand, the anti-imperialist poets of the Spanish-American War, such as Moody and Crosby, were difficult to be called innovate, but they had a strong sense of social mission and society found prophetic value in their words. Poetry and poets played the same role in the period of “stagnation” as they had in the previous “prosperous” era.

Free Research Field

アメリカ詩

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

20世紀モダニズム詩の推進者Poundが「一新せよ」という言葉に象徴される詩革新運動を率い、大きなうねりを導いたことはよく知られる。しかし、Pound直前の詩人たちも、それぞれ「一新せよ」を実践していた。それはPoundのごとく追随者を巻き込んだ運動ではなかった。孤軍奮闘にすぎなかった。そのため文学史でも異端者扱いだった。けれども、アメリカ詩の「沈滞」期といわれる19世紀後期から20世紀初頭は、「詩人たちの黄昏（衰退期）」でもなく、「詩のスランプ」時代でもなく、孤立無援の試行錯誤の時代だったといえる。同時にそれは、Poundのような行動力や統率力を待たなければならなかった時代だったともいえる。