 |
 |
For Latin American poetry French poetry has been almost the only truly formative outside influence, the other being Whitman. In the 20th century, at least until the fall of Franco, Paris became the preferred place of refuge for Latin American expat and exiled writers. A useful book on this: Jason Weiss, The Lights of Home: A Century of Latin American Writers in Paris. In recent decades Latin American poets have inreasingly taken jobs in US university Spanish departments, but English language poetry, apart from Whitman and the first generation modernists, has had little discernible influence, except for a few younger border figures, notably Heriberto Yepez. Or so I read it. Mark At 10:08 AM 8/30/2009, you wrote: >I won't push it David, it's not that important, but Paris was the >focal point, I don't see how anyone can argue with that really, or >even why they would want to. Spain, Russia, wherever, their eyes >were on Paris. It was not a French thing, it was an international >thing, yes, but it sat in the middle of old empires, except ours. > >Tim A. > >On 30 Aug 2009, at 14:54, David Bircumshaw wrote: > >>It's odd, you know, but I was raised in the understanding that the >>most important or 'significant' poetry in European languages in the >>first half of the twentieth century was in Spanish (American and >>Iberian) and Russian (all sorts of nationalities). With the Poles >>and the Greeks next in line. People like Bowra and J.M.Cohen and >>Seymour-Smith taught me that in their writings, and that English >>language modernist poetry (British or US or whatever) was a >>somewhat lesser matter. >> >>2009/8/30 Tim Allen <<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]> >>Well, ummm, it depends on what you mean by accident, and what you >>mean by nationality. >>There are some well documented reasons why France became such an >>early modernist hothouse, and it is not too difficult to understand >>why the US, a young country that embraced the new, followed on >>tentatively until after WW1 when it took over. The US was this >>strange creature where the backward and the forward existed side by >>side - still is I suppose. >> >>Tim A. >> >> >>On 30 Aug 2009, at 12:36, Jeffrey Side wrote: >> >>I agree. I don't think nationality, per se, has anything to do with it. It >>is just an accident of history that modernism developed from the French >>and US poets. >> >> >> >> >>-- >>David Bircumshaw >>"A window./Big enough to hold screams/ >>You say are poems" - DMeltzer >>Website and A Chide's Alphabet >><http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk>http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk >>The Animal Subsides >><http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html>http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html >>Leicester Poetry Society: >><http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk>http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk >>Facebook: >><http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw>http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw > >=