Sorry if I misconstrued. I assumed you were mounting a roundabout attack on
postmodernism (however defined--I missed Chris' citation) in poetry as
self-conscious, ironically detached and solipsistically artificial and
failing "to give life to dead letters." In reply I pointed to one of the
joys of decadence, medieval-style.
Am I right in reading in your post an implication that other kinds of
contemporary poetry are less unsure of their role in society?
It does seem farfetched to compare codes of chivalry with postmodern poetic
theory and practice, they being so different in kind.
Chivalry, by the way, didn't so much lose as change its "real purpose," in
England and France at least; it remained a politically potent metaphor
until the late 17th century. If there's anything to be learned from an
analogy between the two it's perhaps that poetry is in the process of
redefining its "real purpose in society." Real purposes are often in the
eye of the beholder and tend to be no more stable than other things.
At 08:00 AM 10/6/2000 EDT, Henry wrote:
>I'm not "supporting a position". I'm suggesting a possibility, a way
>of looking at something, responding to cris cheek's query, offering a
>hypothesis. Nor do I understand your (rhetorical?) question. I thought
>the analogy I was suggesting was fairly simple.
>
>The analogy is between a cultural impulse which has lost its real purpose
>in society (medieval knighthood) and an artistic activity which is unsure
>of its role in society (poetry). The hypothesis is that the symptoms for
>both will be similar - self-conscious, ironically detached & solipsistic
>artificiality. Postmodernism - specifically as characterized in the
>Stallabrass quote cris offered for comment - and late-medieval chivalry -
>as described in Huizinga's book - seem to share these symptoms. That's
>all I was saying. I'm not arguing that these are the ONLY characteristics
>of contemporary poetry, by any means. They represent trends in poetics/
>theory - a symbiosis of style & literary criticism which is mutually
>supportive.
>
>Henry
>
>
>>A bizarre way to support a position. To turn this strange analogy around,
>>are you saying that the best "self-conscious postmodernism" can produce is
>>flamboyant gothic cathedrals?
>>
>>At 08:23 AM 10/5/2000 EDT, you wrote:
>>>I've been reading the new translation of Huizinga's book "Autumn of the
>>>Middle Ages" (known to countless history undergrads as "The Waning of the
>>>Middle Ages"). He writes much about medieval pageantry, the pervasive
>>>"beautification of life" through popular ritual & the dreams of chivalry
>>>& nobility, as a sort of middle path between the modern sense of practical
>>>social progress & the traditional unworldly asceticism of religion.
>>>He talks about how in the late Middle Ages the chivalric forms were
>>>still active but had become very self-conscious & artificial -
>>>elaborate shells of past orders.
>>>
>>>Cris's quote here makes me wonder if there is a parallel to the
>>>self-conscious postmodernism so characterized. If doubt is cast
>>>on the purposes of poetry in the culture at large, then artistic forms
>>>might tend to display a solipsistic, ironic artifice as an end in itself.
>>>
>>>But the role of the poet has always been to give life to dead letters.
>>>
>>>Henry
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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