Charles Olson’s Mappemunde
This chapter argues that Charles Olson’s sprawling late modernist epic, The Maximus Poems (1960-75) is informed by a profound preoccupation with geography that is focused upon a particular place: the port city of Gloucester, Massachusetts and the neighbouring peninsula of Cape Ann. The deep history...
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Edinburgh University Press
2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 |
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credinunivpr:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 2023-05-15T17:32:15+02:00 Charles Olson’s Mappemunde Alexander, Neal 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 unknown Edinburgh University Press Late Modernism and the Poetics of Place page 142-170 ISBN 9781474484404 9781399518840 book-chapter 2022 credinunivpr https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 2023-01-26T14:53:42Z This chapter argues that Charles Olson’s sprawling late modernist epic, The Maximus Poems (1960-75) is informed by a profound preoccupation with geography that is focused upon a particular place: the port city of Gloucester, Massachusetts and the neighbouring peninsula of Cape Ann. The deep history of Gloucester that Olson undertakes in the first volume of his text, focusing upon the city’s origins as a colonial settlement in the early seventeenth century, is a necessary prelude to the more expansive and fragmentary mytho-historical parallels that he draws between places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic in volumes two and three. Moreover, Olson’s fascination navigators’ charts, sea voyages, and westward migrations in The Maximus Poems suggests that we might read his text as a map of the world – a late modernist mappamundi – that has been made by the restless wanderings of what he calls ‘Western man’. Book Part North Atlantic Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) Cape Ann ENVELOPE(51.367,51.367,-66.167,-66.167) 142 170 |
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Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) |
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description |
This chapter argues that Charles Olson’s sprawling late modernist epic, The Maximus Poems (1960-75) is informed by a profound preoccupation with geography that is focused upon a particular place: the port city of Gloucester, Massachusetts and the neighbouring peninsula of Cape Ann. The deep history of Gloucester that Olson undertakes in the first volume of his text, focusing upon the city’s origins as a colonial settlement in the early seventeenth century, is a necessary prelude to the more expansive and fragmentary mytho-historical parallels that he draws between places in the Eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic in volumes two and three. Moreover, Olson’s fascination navigators’ charts, sea voyages, and westward migrations in The Maximus Poems suggests that we might read his text as a map of the world – a late modernist mappamundi – that has been made by the restless wanderings of what he calls ‘Western man’. |
format |
Book Part |
author |
Alexander, Neal |
spellingShingle |
Alexander, Neal Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
author_facet |
Alexander, Neal |
author_sort |
Alexander, Neal |
title |
Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
title_short |
Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
title_full |
Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
title_fullStr |
Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
title_full_unstemmed |
Charles Olson’s Mappemunde |
title_sort |
charles olson’s mappemunde |
publisher |
Edinburgh University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(51.367,51.367,-66.167,-66.167) |
geographic |
Cape Ann |
geographic_facet |
Cape Ann |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Late Modernism and the Poetics of Place page 142-170 ISBN 9781474484404 9781399518840 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474484404.003.0006 |
container_start_page |
142 |
op_container_end_page |
170 |
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1766130292417888256 |