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Transcendentalism, Mysticism and Imagination in the Poetic Discourse of Jones Very, Wallace Stevens and Stanley Cavell

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Transcendentalism, Mysticism and Imagination in the Poetic Discourse of Jones Very, Wallace Stevens and Stanley Cavell UNIVERSITAT DE VALÈNCIA FACULTAT DE FILOLOGIA, TRADUCCIÓ I COMUNICACIÓ DEPARTAMENT DE FILOLOGIA ANGLESA I ALEMANYA Transcendentalism, Mysticism and Imagination in the Poetic Discourse of Jones Very, Wallace Stevens and Stanley Cavell PhD Program in Languages, Literatures and Cultures and their Applications Code 3135 Ph Dissertation submitted by Inmaculada Rodrigo Minguet Supervised by Dra. Anna Mª Brígido Corachán Dr. Paul Scott Derrick Grisanti Valencia, September 2019 Transcendentalism, Mysticism and Imagination in the Poetic Discourse of Jones Very, Wallace Stevens and Stanley Cavell A mis seres queridos, siempre en mi pensamiento. Para siempre en mi corazón. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the writing of this dissertation I have received a great deal of support and assistance. I would first like to thank my tutors, Dra. Anna Brígido Corachán and Dr. Paul Scott Derrick Grisanti for their valuable guidance. They were always there willing to help me with the tools that I needed to successfully complete this dissertation. I find myself very fortunate to have met such good teachers with enormous humanity. I would also like to thank my friends and workmates who provided me with happy distraction during all this time of my research. Finally, I would like to express my warmest gratitude to my family for their wholehearted support and to Vicente, always there for me with wise counsel, for every single day and for all those weekends at home. ABSTRACT The growth of self-consciousness throughout history takes place in a context of duality between a subjective and an objective awareness of the world. Rational thinking and speech, mind and words shape the individual´s concern with the knowledge of his/her nature as a physical and a spiritual being. The search for self-fulfilment in the perception of affinity between the sensual and the spiritual that results from mystical experience is integrated within the poetic discourse that finds evidence of such continuity between world and thought by means of imagination. This thesis aims to study how the influence of mysticism and imagination in the individual´s intellectual advance and in the poetic discourse in America, especially when filtered through Romantic and Transcendentalist thought, significantly contributes to the construction of a path towards self-knowledge. This dissertation examines the concepts of mysticism and imagination in 19th and 20th century American poetry and poetic discourse through an in-depth study of a selection of poetic and philosophical works by Jones Very (1813 – 1880), Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) and Stanley Cavell (1926 – 2018). Jones Very, Wallace Stevens and Stanley Cavell see the uncommon within the common. Their poetry, their essays and their analysis of poetic discourse give a response to existential concerns related to identity and self-knowledge that are still key in 21st century America. Immersed in a mystical experience and as inheritors of romantic thought, they pierce the emblematic power of language and the spiritual condition of the sensual world out of an intuitive insight and imagination. Through their creativity and imagination and as artists committed to the power of language, Very, Stevens and Cavell epitomize the process of transformation in the individual´s intellectual growth into self-knowledge. We need the mystic´s insight and the romantic´s imagination, the poet´s voice and the philosopher´s thought to shape the state of intimacy between the world and thought. Table of Contents Introduction: The Condition of Being. The Need to Know 5 - Objectives 7 - Methodology and Overview of Key Concepts 12 I- Mysticism and the Literary Imagination 29 I.1- Defining the Term 29 I.2- Mysticism: From Classical Philosophies to the 19th Century 34 II - Mysticism and American Transcendentalism 47 II.1- Puritanism, Unitarianism and their Connections to Mysticism 53 II.1.1- From New England Puritanism to Religious Liberalism 53 II.1.2- Traditional Unitarianism vs. Unitarian Transcendentalism 62 II.1.3- The Influence of German Idealism 66 II.1.4- English Philosophical and Literary Influence 71 II.2- Mysticism, a Vision of Life 73 III - Mystical Heritage: Imagination and Reality 83 IV - Jones Very, the Mystic 99 IV.1- A Controversial Transcendentalist Attitude 104 IV.2- Literary Contribution: 107 IV.2.1- Epic Poetry and the Epic Hero´s Mystical Search: 107 IV.2.1.1- Epic Spirit in the Greek and Roman World 110 IV.2.1.2- The Epic and Christianity 118 IV.2.2-Verse: Study of Three Poems: 133 · “The Stranger´s Gift” 137 · “The Soul in Dreams” 144 · “Beauty” 147 IV.3- Very´s Mysticism: Evolution of a Philosophical and Spiritual Consciousness 151 1 V - Poetic Reality in Wallace Stevens 157 V.1- Stevens´ Philosophical and Literary Views on Mysticism, Reality and the Imagination: 161 V.1.1- Nobility and Imagination in Steven´s Prose: 167 · “The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words” 167 V.1.2- Philosophical Concerns in Steven´s poetry: 183 · “Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself” 183 · “The Idea of Order at Key West” 190 V.2- Art and Nature in Stevens: 200 · “The Relations between Poetry and Painting” 200 · “Anecdote of the Jar” 207 · “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” 211 VI - From Mysticism to Imagination: the Relevance of the Ordinary: 221 VI.1- The Idea of Continuity Thought - World: Stanley Cavell´s Views on the Ordinary 226 VI.2- The Power of Language to Approach the Ordinary 237 VI.3- “Texts of Recovery”: Cavell´s Philosophical and Literary Rereading of the World: 242 VI.3.1-Coleridge´s “The Ancient Mariner” 243 VI.3.2-Heidegger´s “Das Ding” 250 VI.3.3-Wisdom´s “Gods” 257 VI.3.4-Wordsworth´s “Intimations” 260 VII - The Creative Answer. Understanding the Condition of Being 267 2 Bibliography 281 Online Sources 294 Appendix I: Resumen en Castellano 299 Appendix II: Poems 322 - Poems by Jones Very: · “The Stranger´s Gift” 322 · “The Soul in Dreams” 323 · “Beauty” 324 - Poems by Wallace Stevens: · “Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself” 325 · “The Idea of Order at Key West” 326 · “Anecdote of the Jar” 328 · “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” 328 3 4 The rose is without why; it blooms because it blooms It cares not for itself; asks not if it´s seen. Angelus Silesius INTRODUCTION: THE CONDITION OF BEING. THE NEED TO KNOW If we should name two of the main features that define human beings, those would undoubtedly be rational thinking and speech. Both are innate to us and their evolution draws the map of our intellectual growth. Mind and words shape the individual´s awareness of the necessary conditions to grow into the knowledge of his nature as a being. This intellectual growth must be understood as a progressive broadening of self-consciousness; and this broadening would be subsequent to the awareness of a change in the individual´s perception of his existence not only as a physical being but as a spiritual one. Likewise, the experience of life and interaction with the world are part of the individual´s growth into self-knowledge. There seems to be an innate desire in human being to go further into that ability of the mind that may bring the individual to wisdom. This innate desire to approach wisdom encourages the individual´s intellectual growth as an act of matching sensual and spiritual experiences into world-shaping and imaginative thoughts, such as those Emerson subtly defines as “a gleam of light”: “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within” (Emerson Essays and Lectures: Self-Reliance 259). The growth of consciousness within the individual throughout history has often taken place in a context of duality between a subjective and an objective awareness of reality. Reality as the result of the individual´s experience of the world could not only be understood as an objective experience beyond the senses, but also as a subjective approach as far as it is concerned with the individual´s thought and inner interpretation of the world –an inner view encouraged by the contemplation of the outer. This inner comprehension of the outer becomes an experience which has eventually instilled in the individual´s thought, in the mystic´s meditative attitude and in the poet´s words a feeling of continuity between matter and soul. The individual becomes aware and attains knowledge within this context of duality. 5 Consciousness stems from knowledge and knowledge is at the core of what makes human beings. And this duality evolved during Romanticism and in 19th century America into a need of continuity between the inner and the outer. The search for self- fulfilment in the perception of affinity between the sensual and the spiritual that resulted from mystical experience was thus integrated within a philosophical and poetic context that tried to find evidence of such continuity between world and thought, thus bridging the gap created by a dualistic vision. 6 Objectives This thesis aims to examine the concepts of mysticism and imagination in 19th and 20th century American poetry and poetic discourse through an in-depth study of a selection of poetic and philosophical works by Jones Very (1813 – 1880), Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955) and Stanley Cavell (1926 – 2018). Both terms, mysticism and imagination, have influenced the individual´s intellectual advance and poetry´s mystical discourse in America, especially when filtered through Romantic and Transcendentalist thought, has significantly contributed to the construction of a path towards self- knowledge. Mystical elements that have carved this path of the individual towards self- knowledge include meditation and reflection, revelation, intuition and the role of language and expression. These mystical tools can be traced in the writings of many American poets and philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries and most especially in the works of Very, Stevens and Cavell, as we will see throughout this dissertation, where I will demonstrate the relevance of the concepts of mysticism and imagination in the development and continuity of a line of philosophical thought –the individual´s concern with the knowledge of the nature of his being– and its literary expression from its origins in the classical world to the present in the United States.
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