George Oppen and the poetics of sincerity.
Item
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Title
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George Oppen and the poetics of sincerity.
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Identifier
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AAI9986319
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identifier
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9986319
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Creator
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Dobbelmann, Duncan Pierre.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Mary Ann Caws
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Date
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2000
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American
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Abstract
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"George Oppen and the Poetics of Sincerity" makes the case for Oppen as a major American poet by demonstrating how he reconceived the role of the poet in society through a contemplation of the concept of sincerity. An exegesis of the role of sincerity in literature---from Confucius to Montaigne to Trilling---reveals that it is a concept which is invoked time and again as a critical component of a healthy society: sincerity is the very substance of relations between the citizen and the polis. I unearth the genealogical origin of Oppen's poetics in the "surprise of the new"---first articulated by Emerson, Dickinson, and Whitman---which comes to shape the poetics of sincerity in the American literary landscape. This particular lineage culminates with Ezra Pound; but Pound's valuation of the poet as a privileged vates was rejected by the Objectivist poets, who were radical in regarding the poem as an object and the poet as a craftsperson. Oppen, in particular, believed that the poet could no longer be seen as a hero engaged in some epic quest-romance to legislate humankind through innovative literary practices. Poetry, Oppen believed, is not "an advanced form of rhetoric." Oppen's idea of sincerity is manifested in his poems through what he calls the "encounter": he viewed the process of writing poetry as a test of truths not previously known, not as an opportunity to advance a predetermined agenda (as with Pound). I read Oppen's great long poem "Of Being Numerous" both thematically and historically: a meditation on the singular via Robinson Crusoe and Alexander Selkirk (Crusoe's original) shows how solitude is socially and politically constructed; and a contemplation of "numerousness" via New York City in the sixties (the place and time in which Oppen wrote the poem) adds dimension to the crisis of sincerity that Oppen witnessed. I conclude by assessing Oppen's position in the current poetry wars. Although consistently championed by experimental writers, Oppen was long absent from literary anthologies; now, however, his multiple legacies are apparent as his work is represented in a number of prominent anthologies---each with distinct social and political missions.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
