Cleanth Brooks and the Romantics. Huey S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1979 Cleanth Brooks and the Romantics. Huey S. Guagliardo Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Guagliardo, Huey S., "Cleanth Brooks and the Romantics." (1979). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3396. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3396 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This was produced from a copy o f a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality o f the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or “ target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “ Missing Page(s)” . I f it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure you of complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark it is an indication that the film inspector noticed either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, or duplicate copy. Unless we meant to delete copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed, you will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part o f the material being photo graphed the photographer has followed a definite method in “sectioning” the material. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. I f necessary, sectioning is continued again—beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. For any illustrations that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by xerography, photographic prints can be purchased at additional cost and tipped into your xerographic copy. Requests can be made to our Dissertations Customer Services Department. 5. Some pages in any document may have indistinct print. In all cases we have filmed the best available copy. University Microfilms International 300 N. ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1R 4EJ, ENGLAND Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7927528 GUAGlIARDO, HUEY S. CLEANTH BASOKS AND THE ROMANTICS. THE LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COL., PH.D., 1979 University Micrdfilms International 300 N. ZEEB ROAD. ANN ARBOR. Ml 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CLEANTH BROOKS AND THE ROMANTICS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Huey S . Guagliardo B.A., University of New Orleans, 1971 M.A., University of New Orleans, 1973 August, 1979 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to thank Dr. Fabian Gudas, my major profes sor, for his assistance in the preparation of this work. I would also like to thank Professors Donald Stanford and Thomas Watson for their helpful comments. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION............................ 1 CHAPTER 1 ANTI-ROMANTICISM IN THE EARLY WORK OF CLEANTH BROOKS......................... 9 CHAPTER 2 ANSWERING THE OPPOSITION AND BRIDGING THE GAP......................... 60 CHAPTER 3 GAINING "A WIDER PERSPECTIVE"............. 97 CHAPTER 4 BROOKS, WIMSATT, AND THE ROMANTICS.......134 CHAPTER 5 LATER WORKS............................... 187 CONCLUSION............................................. 227 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY................................. 237 VITA................................................... 244 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This chronological study of Cleanth Brooks's works dealing with the English poetry and poetic theory of the Romantic period has a threefold purpose: to trace the changes in Brooks’s attitudes toward this body of poetry and the expressionist theory associated with it; to ex plain why these changes occurred when they did; and to clear up some of the misunderstandings and correct some of the misrepresentations of Brooks's approach that have persisted over the years. In his early work, Brooks described Romantic poetry as a deviation from the English poetic tradition as rep resented by metaphysical and modern poetry. His early practical criticism emphasized the "failings" of Roman tic poetry, particularly what he believed was its tend ency to oversimplify the complexities of human experience. Brooks insisted on the superiority of an "inclusive" po etry, a poetry which renders the full complexity of ex perience. Such poetry, he maintained, works through indirection rather than direct statement. Its radical metaphors and heterogeneous images are the instruments by which it dramatizes the complexity of the human iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. condition. Brooks generally found Romantic poetry to lack this quality of inclusiveness while he found meta physical and modern poetry to possess this quality to a high degree. He believed that the problem with Romantic poetry centered around the failure of the Romantic poets to perceive the functional nature of metaphor. Brooks's early work is also characterized by an attempt to mini mize the use of biographical and historical scholarship in order to shift the focus of critical inquiry from the poet to the poem. Brooks's attempts to disparage Romantic poetry and to minimize the use of biography and history during this period are part of his rhetorical strategy for defending the complex imagery of modern po etry and combating what he believed were erroneous criti cal principles carried over from the Romantic period, most notably the Romantic theory of poetry as self- expression . Opponents of Brooks claimed that his work was nar row and intolerant. In order to defend his position, Brooks applied his poetic principles to Romantic poetry. Accusations of narrowness and intolerance also led Brooks to expand his approach by making greater use of biographi cal and historical material. Demonstrating that his approach works for Romantic poetry led Brooks to modify his view of this poetry; v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that is, he began to develop a genuine appreciation for some Romantic poems and to distinguish between the sub jective theory of composition associated with Romanticism and Romantic poetry itself. Through his association with W. K. Wimsatt, Brooks came to an even deeper appreciation of Romantic poetry as he arrived at a better understand ing of the metaphorical structure of this poetry, a struc ture based not on overt statement but on implication. He came to view Romantic poetry as "inclusive" after all. Although Brooks's early work tends to minimize the importance of biographical and historical scholarship in order to establish a new, more objective critical approach, and although it is accurate to say that his theory broad ened over the years with respect to other critical focuses, he has from the beginning recognized the importance of such scholarship and has spent years attempting to correct the misconception that his approach ignores biography and history. Brooks's own work often fuses criticism and scholarship while distinguishing between the two activities. Brooks's later work is marked by an attempt to empha size the common ground which Romantic poetry shares with the metaphysical poetry which preceded it and, more im portantly, with the modern poetry which followed it. His recent efforts to emphasize the essential continuity which exists between the Romantics and the moderns clearly vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. illustrates the extent to which Brooks’s attitude toward Romantic poetry has changed over the years. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION After graduating from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's degree in 1928, Cleanth Brooks enrolled at Tulane University, from which he received his M.A. degree. In 1929 he accepted a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he studied until 1932.^ Brooks's return to the United States after completing his work at Oxford marks the be ginning of a long and distinguished career as teacher, editor, and literary critic. This career began in ear nest in the fall of 1932 when he took a