Ezra Pound and His Classical Sources: The Cantos and the Primal Matter of Troy

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This book uses Ezra Pounds The Cantos as a lens to understand modernisms ambition to revolutionize literature through mythical and scientific methods. Homers Odyssey plays a unique methodological and structural role in The Cantos. The Cantos translates, interprets, abridges, adapts, critiques, parodies, trivializes, allegorizes, and ritualizes the Odyssey. Partly inspired by Joyces use of different literary styles or technics in Ulysses, and partly inspired by medieval classicism and 19th century philology, Pound uses a plethora of methods to translate Homer and other classical texts. This book argues that The Cantos is a modernist vision of the Matter of Troy, a term used by medieval authors to designate the cycle of texts based on the Trojan war and its aftereffects, including the nostoi (returns) of the Greek heroes. This is the first study to explore how medieval classicism and translation informs Pounds mythical method and to systematically outline the variety and evolution of Pounds Odyssey translations in The Cantos.

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The chapters devoted to the Pisan and post-Pisan Cantos, where Ullyots close readings are at their best, offer a new and relevant contribution to Poundian scholarship. * English Studies *

Author Bio

Jonathan Ullyot is a Professor at Seneca College and an Instructor at the University of Torontos School of Continuing Studies, Canada.