I'm very interested in the implications of Sean's remark about the
oxymoronic character of a notion of 'British Modernism' particularly as it
raises the ghost of the question 'What is British?'. I guess that viewed
from abroad there can seem to be a fuzzy collectivity of nation about the
literature writtten in these islands but, viewed from within, I certainly
find both a variousness and a disunity that doesn't accord with the fiction
of Britain. But I'm not attempted a statement of definition here, merely
looking to see how the notion or notionality of nation can be 'spun'.
In an un-Downing Street sense that is.
david b
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean O'Brien" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 8:20 AM
Subject: Re: Briggflats' concluding 'we'
> Hi Matthew
>
> In fact I was responding to Doug's remarks about Basil Bunting. It's true
> that Bunting suffered neglect. It's also true, however, that when people
> such as Tom Pickard came across his work they made efforts to get a
hearing
> for it, and that the Anvil edition of Briggflatts appeared in the 1960s
and
> was widely discussed and read. It is also true that the work of Andrew
> McAllister among others (see the BETE NOIRE interview) helped to renew
> attention to Bunting's work towards the end of his life.
> It is true that in old age Bunting struggled (as, to our shame, do
numerous
> old people, poets or not),
> but it is also true that Northern Arts, the regional arm of the English
Arts
> Council, established the Northern Arts Literary Fellowship, with a fee and
a
> house, in order to help Bunting make ends meet. It is also true that one
of
> the 'establishment' figures who didn't publish Bunting was T.S. Eliot with
> his Faber and Faber hat on. Funny, that. Could have sworn Eliot was a
> modernist. That's the Eliot from the Fabers which published Philip Larkin.
> Hmm.
>
> As to 'British Modernism', you could indeed read this as an oxymoron,
since
> the term
> 'British' no longer has any useful application to the several literatures
> written in English on this
> side of the Atlantic, though it is sometimes brandished like an insult by
> people
> who might be expected to know better, some of whom might well be a bit
> pissed off were anyone to suggest that, for example, 'Canadian literature'
> also sounds like an oxymoron. Which of course it isn't, but the insult is
> easy to deliver, and to do so would help perpetuate the thoughtless
> antagonism Poetryetc presumably exists to avoid.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Sean
>
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