W. H. Auden and the Meaning of Lyric Poetry Edward Quipp Phd. University of Edinburgh, 2007
W. H. Auden and the Meaning of Lyric Poetry Edward Quipp PhD. University of Edinburgh, 2007. THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH AABBSSTTRRAACCTT OOFF TTHHEESSIISS Regulation 3.1.14 of the Postgraduate Assessment Regulations for Research Degrees refers These regulations are available via:- http://www.aaps.ed.ac.uk/regulations/exam.htm Name of Edward Quipp Candidate: Address : Postal Code: Degree: PhD Title of W. H. Auden and the Meaning of Lyric Poetry Thesis: No. of words in the main text of Thesis: 97462 My thesis proceeds from recent critical discussion about the status of the aesthetic object after the decline of high theory of the 1980s and 1990s. The term “singularity”, articulated by critics working with the ideas of Martin Heidegger, has been variously applied to the artwork in the attempt to describe the generative power of art as separable from any historical or political determinants that may shape it. What makes the experience of art “singular”, that is, an experience governed by the artwork itself, without the scaffolding of theory or context? Such a question, I argue, actually demands a return to the first principles of close textual criticism, along with a rigorous approach to genre. The lyric poetry of W. H. Auden provides the ideal material for “singular” criticism. Unpacking the term lyric and redefining it according to Auden’s particular poetics, I consider how Auden inaugurated a new manner of experiencing modern poetry based on the notion, implicit to the conventional understanding of lyric, of vocality. After an account of Heidegger’s influence on contemporary ideas on aesthetics, I consult the work of Theodor Adorno, and later Hannah Arendt, in order to situate Auden’s early work in a European context, opposing the Atlanticism which has governed the vast majority of Auden criticism.
[Show full text]