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Imagism, Vorticism and the European Avant-Garde

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Imagism, Vorticism and the European Avant-Garde AESTHETICS OF EXPERIMENT: IMAGISM, VORTICISM AND THE EUROPEAN AVANT-GARDE Sze Wah Sarah LEE Goldsmiths, University of London Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London, February 2016 Declaration I, Sze Wah Sarah LEE, hereby confirm that the work presented in the thesis as my own. Signature: Sarah Lee Date: 26 February 2016 Abstract This dissertation is a critical re-assessment of Imagism and Vorticism in relation to the European avant-garde, which both movements aspired towards in their reactions against the contemporary English arts and letters. I explore the implementation of such aspirations in the English arts by chronicling the complex relationship between the English movements and Cubism, the Parisian avant-garde, Italian Futurism and German Expressionism. The thesis argues that Imagism and Vorticism simultaneously modelled themselves on and reacted against their Continental counterparts, in terms of aesthetic concepts, artistic techniques and promotional tactics in creating a modern art. As movements with contributors of different nationalities and working in different artistic media, including poetry, painting and sculpture, there necessarily exists many aesthetic varieties within Imagism and Vorticism apart from foundational consensus shared by group members. In order to address the complexity of the groups’ make-up and the interdisciplinarity of their avant-garde aesthetics, the enquiry is made through a two-fold approach: firstly, by conducting contextual and comparative studies of significant individuals of the movements, including T. E. Hulme, Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound, to gauge their individual perspectives on literature, visual arts and aesthetic theories; secondly, by considering the heterogeneous nature of these movements and exploring the group dynamics, tensions and rivalries within the movements and with other contemporary groups. With this dual focus, my thesis reconstructs the cultural milieu through the artists’ works and correspondence, as well as the circulation network of little magazines, publicity and patronage, in order to reconcile the aesthetic and social contexts of Imagism and Vorticism, both in England and beyond. Ultimately, my thesis provides a more comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the English movements’ aesthetics, their relationship with the European avant-garde, and their impact on artistic and literary experimentation in modernist English literature and visual arts. List of Abbreviations B1 BLAST 1, ed. by Wyndham Lewis (London: John Lane, 1914) B2 BLAST 2, ed. by Wyndham Lewis (London: John Lane, 1915) CHC Wyndham Lewis, Creatures of Habit, Creatures of Change: Essays on Art, Literature and Society, 1914-1956, ed. by Paul Edwards (Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1989) CW T. E. Hulme, The Collected Writings of T.E. Hulme, ed. by Karen Csengeri (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) CWA Wassily Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art, ed. by Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo (London: Faber and Faber, 1982) EPVA Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts, ed. by Harriet Zinnes (New York: New Directions, 1980) Futurism Futurism: An Anthology, ed. by Lawrence Rainey, Christine Poggi and Laura Wittman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) GB Ezra Pound, Gaudier Brzeska: A Memoir (New York: New Directions, [1916] 1970) LE Ezra Pound, Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, ed. by T. S. Eliot (London: Faber, 1954) Letters Wyndham Lewis, The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, ed. by W. K. Rose (London: Methuen, 1963) P/LR Ezra Pound, Pound/The Little Review: The Letters of Ezra Pound to Margaret Anderson: The Little Review Correspondence, ed. by Thomas L. Scott and Melvin J. Friedman, with the assistance of Jackson R. Bryer (New York: New Directions, 1988) P/Q Ezra Pound, The Selected Letters of Ezra Pound to John Quinn, 1915-1924, ed. by Timothy Materer (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991) RA Wyndham Lewis, Rude Assignment: An Intellectual Autobiography, ed. by Toby Foshay (Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, [1950] 1984) SL Ezra Pound, The Selected Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941, ed. by D. D. Paige (New York: New Directions, [1950] 1971) SP Ezra Pound, Selected Prose, 1909-1965, ed. by William Cookson (New York: New Directions, 1973) ‘Vorticism’ Ezra Pound, ‘Vorticism’, Fortnightly Review 96, no. 573 (1 September 1914), pp. 461-471. Reprinted in Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts, ed. by Harriet Zinnes (New York: New Directions, 1980), pp. 199-209 WLA Wyndham Lewis, Wyndham Lewis on Art: Collected Writings 1913-1956, ed. by Walter Michel and C. J. Fox (London: Thames and Hudson, 1969) Table of Contents Introduction 9 Chapter 1: French Currents in Imagism and Vorticism 58 1. Anglo-French Literary Exchange 60 A. Promoting the New Poetry i. The ‘forgotten school of 1909’ and English Francophiles 61 ii. French Innovations and Imagist Rivalries 69 iii. The Parisian Imagist: Horace Holley 77 B. Little Magazines as a Medium of Artistic Exchange 80 i. Early Interactions and Poème & Drame 81 ii. Les Soirées de Paris and Imagism 84 iii. Apollinaire and Vorticism 88 2. Cross-Currents between Literature and the Visual Arts A. Poetry and the Visual Arts i. Theory and Practice 94 ii. Interdisciplinary Cubism 95 iii. A Parallel to Cubism: Vorticism’s Interdisciplinary 98 Experiments B. French Magazines as ‘Business Models’ for the Little Review i. Literature and the Visual Arts 104 ii. Collaborations and Conglomerations 108 3. Visual Arts A. French Innovations and New English Art 112 B. Vorticism’s Reactions and Sense of Form 116 Chapter 2: Ezra Pound’s Interdisciplinary Experiments 125 1. Imagisme: First Step towards an Avant-Garde Movement 126 2. From Imagism to Vorticism: An Aesthetic Evolution 130 A. Discovering the Visual 130 B. Becoming an Artist-Critic 135 C. Language, Vision and Interdisciplinarity 141 D. Redefining the Arts 153 3. Pound’s Wartime Contributions to Vorticism 160 A. Patronage for Creation 161 B. The ‘Art Notes’ as Vorticist stratégie littéraire 163 Chapter 3: ‘Primitive Mercenaries in the Modern World’: Vorticism 173 and German Influence 1. German Expressionism and Kandinsky 174 2. BLAST 187 A. ‘“Inner Necessity”: Review of Kandinsky’s book’ 191 B. ‘Vortices and Notes’ 198 3. BLAST 2 202 A. Blasting / Blessing Germany 204 B. ‘A Review of Contemporary Art’ 209 Chapter 4: T. E. Hulme: Theorist of the English Avant-Garde 221 1. Explorations in Language: 1906-1909 A. ‘Cinders’ and ‘Notes on Language and Style’ 223 B. ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’ 229 C. ‘Searchers after Reality – II: Haldane’ 235 D. Poetics: Hulme versus Pound 237 2. Redefinitions: 1911-1913 239 A. ‘Romanticism and Classicism’ 240 B. ‘A Tory Philosophy’ 245 C. Aesthetics: Hulme, Bergson and Pound 247 D. Departure from Poetry: ‘German Chronicle’ 254 3. Visual Arts: 1913-1914 257 A. Hulme as Art Critic 258 B. Early Articles 262 C. ‘The New Art and Its Philosophy’ 265 D. Later Articles 271 Chapter 5: Imagism, Vorticism and Italian Futurism 278 1. Legitimising the Avant-Garde A. Publishing and Popularising 282 B. Rhetoric and Polemics 292 C. Materials and Media 298 2. Futurist and Vorticist Aesthetic Discourses 307 A. Dynamism and Time 307 B. Technology and Nature 313 C. North / South Divide 320 D. Vortex 324 3. Futurism, Imagism and Vorticism as Collective Movements 327 A. Collective of Individuals 327 B. Avant-Garde Gender Politics 331 Conclusion 338 Appendix: Selected Mentions of the English Avant-Garde in French 340 Periodicals, 1913-1914 Bibliography 345 Introduction Research Question and General Outline My thesis provides a new framework for a critical re-assessment of Imagism and Vorticism, two short-lived but influential and seminal arts movements emerging in England in the 1910s, which consisted of artists and writers from a variety of national backgrounds. In their ambition to break with the artistic tradition of England and reject its cultural backwardness, the Imagists and Vorticists turned to non-English influences, particularly to a range of contemporary art movements in Continental Europe, to embrace, endorse or appropriate their radical and experimental ideas and practices. Although the Imagists and Vorticists were respectively united in their aesthetic goals, the artistic practice and theories of individual members were highly unique, resulting in heterogeneous group aesthetics and internal rivalries. The objective of my thesis is to correct the common conceptions of Imagism and Vorticism as ‘English’ or ‘Anglo-American’ movements with fixed and rearguard aesthetics, which insufficiently and imprecisely reflect and address the aesthetic complexities involved. This necessitates a critical reconsideration which explores the individual, multi-faceted and international qualities of the aesthetics of both movements. My research objectives are achieved through an in-depth study of the early stages of key artists’ careers and the evolution of their aesthetics through their complex interactions with the European avant-garde, which illustrates the aesthetic complexities, diversities and inconsistencies between individuals and groups. Through an examination of the Imagists and Vorticists’ discursive and creative interdisciplinary interactions with the European avant-garde in literature, 9 visual arts and aesthetic theories, my thesis aims to re-evaluate the nature and evolution of Imagist and Vorticist aesthetics, as articulated by both individual and collective statements. Ultimately, my thesis reassesses the contributions
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