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In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uesL ProQuest 10647555 Published by ProQuest LLO (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 -, # 7 / ' ' !' . • ' /' ' ' ';% #. oomïmiîs Seotioh'- ■»„ÿ ' Pi '/I Sèètion II - :/À. • ■ ■ pi""? 8eotio& III: ■> ,f'- . P» ,r Seotidh IV ,, 'î'"’ ■ 4: ’ • 4-. 4 4 # p, 60 ■ - : : . r ' Section V - ' , I p* Ï.,."Section VI. ' *' * .. #'/* , f .. ' T'_ ■■ ■■: ,v' \ ■■ ' • . ' -■'.T.- ■ ,:T.- ,;>;>■ %e\'GolleCtdd Boema of:'Wallace GteveW'will\%ee.'%efé^3zed. to throaghont aB GP and followed Lj thé appropriate page number. Similarly» Op u s PoathumouB wi.ll bë refe ^ e d " to as ;OPi % e Neoeaawy Angal os HA, ond «it Aatt.e.»a oÿ.Wallaoo Stgvena ,a9’'i»4-- "Jbll roferèncoB aro the Mblldgraphy , ^ . ' ' . ' ' ' ' f'- A'i r / : # K .teter r Orne of tîie groat interoaté of Wallaoo Stovone as m object of study lies in the foot that ho does not merely present us with a body of poetry, hut goes on to present us with a paradigm of whloh hie own poetry is hut one possible exemplifioation* This paradigm, galled into being by the particular qonditlone of the twentieth century# is a presoriptive programme for notion, a eet of ruloo eanotioned by their effioienoy, in operating in everyday life. Stevens begins by placing modern men in terms of hin psyoho#BO0ial predicament and then goes on to explore the iaiplicatlcns of I M s predicament with regard to possible action, concluding finally that art will be the major support of man both now and in the foreseeable future* The mode of thie ertietio support will be the creative prooeoe itself, ae related to both poet and reader, since the aesthetic theory elaborated by Stevens shifts the emphaeie from finished product to the action which culminates in such a product: tlis aesthetic theory finds its justification a iWrld view ifhich claims that "the event is the unit of things roal'% Stevem* continuing relevance is shown by the affinities of his tlieory of fictions with recent theories about the games m live by, in our language, our institutions end our personal lives# The claims for cffioienoy involved in this proffered paradigm are based on what Stevens takes to be an inevitable process of redundancy on the part of individual poems, which are the examples called into being by A#N, Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (Pelican, 19P), P* 17$# a.- the set ■ rules* ■■-'■I.Since pârtieuXar poems must loee their power,:•-the• ability to conoplo which is their function, it Will he necessmÿ to replace them, and an awareness Of the existence of the pattern and the place of i>oem** ■examples' in; it" will^ hopelhliy,- permit on easy and .painless transition from the outmoded flotion to the relevant fiction',’ “without any sentimental clinging to the fiction-i “irihioh has lost its sanction», , ÎM s replacing process can in theory continue. indefinitely and at varying speeds, end ' natural human conservatism ensures: that '; the process - takes place only when necessary* A Psentimental clingi#" to old forms ccmnot in itself he ‘ ■ condemned, for'g3.vc-h-that poems, or forms oontimie to perform their consolatozy ' fuhotion# ■ they can logltimotely^ W rotannrd, hut unfortiumtely the' desire ■ to çlinh to previohn':' comforts freauohtly cpvoxn on inner ' dlsoatisfaC't'ioh which could he .aalleviated hy new fictions# fox Stevens, the him m%st hltmys he # è -satisfying of the need for order-, folt hy modem - man : ahd,according to. Stevens, this satisfaction is brought about at ' proshnt.ohly by art, ' ' ; " Wiy >is ■ art ' seen ...by Stevens as the. 'supreme• me tW d ■ by^.-which èùoh - essentially 'emotional comfort io • given" to..manymd^ why should “this artistic- satisfaction take the.;.'fom of praoess rather,’thaiT product?- ' Bis solution ' can he traded back to the scientific discoveries of . the late nineteenth and early twentieth conturiès, ^hmugh their impact on certain. pMlosophem c-md. their-poi^îlarisem^' ' 'Those digooverles M y ë had profound oonewtmooB on twentieth-century .thought, particularly-, with regard-,to aesthetic ■ 'theories and the subsocmont imx>crtanco -placed upon art in general* # o m i n .çcnBCQuenoè of these düe’ooverioo has been the'.g-rowth .of a distrust in This diminution of power takoa place for both poet and reader, a l t h o u # .at - different 'mtes* ' -Beep* 78. ■ finality,' teenomous step from the early nineteéirbh-oentury confidence in:'the'; eventual^, or at any rate theoretioalj establishment by roan of full knowledge about hlo onvironmont* .We have.'now abçjylonodf 'even aa-a poaoi.*, \ bilits'', the vieion of complete kiiowlodge and as the concept of finality loses ite previous value, this value is transferred to the quest for/final ■answersi': .the' action,: the peekingfpls g).V0nttho./import#c^ .ink, '- ' 'previons ages, had attached to ■,tho'.icnowlodge-p;Blned» Tho awareness of this, cOmbinod with a pertain self-effacement on the part of the a.rtist,. has led • to: attempta,.to- make./■ the-àotibn'/-available ' to. all, to expand ■ elitism into, democracy* And so. we. see the emergence of’bntMip books#'fluid-theatre,; ’’bpen*’;'works, of. art which Invite,, or deniancti active response-from the àMiGnoG* V, One oonseptiCnce.-of ;this, denigration-of the product has been the • accëptëncG;-'Of’ the possible..impermanence, of the imrk..of .art, • -the - self^* destriîot book, for'example'*', BecanCe of this shift in emphasis from the finished.product to the process of creation.itself, fixed forras have ceased, to satisfy Us; they seem to betray; what ire now toko to he the t3#th about the Tmrld dhd ouy position and power in it*.^ These scientific, disooverios. were .studied by. Stevens in -the writings of phiioêophôi>*solentls.ts- suoh as Bergson and hhitehead, and through popularisorb of thoiramrk, such. aç-’-Joàd'. Stevens took;a great/interest - in/ .the philosophical implications of .these discoveries, - ;p8rtiçularly the fôpistem,alogical-- consequenoçé ..-,of 'new ideas about causality and 'scientific.: peroeption, and.'wont'on. to examine., thb' psyoho'^social results for m d e m : man»', bhile examining the scientific aspect, he relies upon Bergson and #%ltehead, .but the aesthetic conclusions he-reaches#.;ifith reg^ard to.thé ■ theory of. fietionc, • owe >'more to ' William James# ‘ Despite his initial - reliance .upon other t h W m r s as a .starting point, we m e t remember Stevens* own disclaimer "I know of no one who has been pax'ticularly important to m:- 't e - . '. 4 # me* % iG. entirely my oim 0"^% ihtiu^ I eee It % othem#" (L* 792) HowGVoi*, his *reelity-ii^.glsc.Llom ooilU*e%* did evolve In roèpohne to the nGGde%#d man and can only W oludicd vith roforonoe to tho world vinvr bold by litovawB and .\x%lneteonth"Ccntnry iinto;i#Rll$m, yth^n# had gÿyon way . to % a%mréne8é^.,of the Imre— i'h:Uity of p r 6 " ^ g 6r :d3.#p3^oving Wà'è^^ % thé: nature f -^-he o] toinrl world# Bolen i ifiC/dlWoovex^ee :qm% no longer he h a B o d u p o h tho ovldëho'é given hy. the jupqf 9,niT#ly h o o m e e atomio ' / phyelco taWa't^, beyond ;the limitations,of eyerydeyi peroeptlonf and ep- eoiontiflo âooçhnto of the imrld no î o n ^ r èé#ii to 'oiuf)3:oe the exflénà** tloho we gather fa^ peroeptlonkH'^é<^ up hy XAodorn k ' Bpi o o ç é ^ W y o^m :'iqter.ml "gèhorci-ioe/'of phyeipiets^kpntterne"» j--. but this change in. eolehtlfié tazn^^^^^^^ demomtr^hility in thé everydey^ Tzorld to tho ooherénoo of patterne whloh aiéy seem hnrelated to thlo w r l d :ie a change whioh the hon4#eôiehtlot findo'difficult I* uioojpt* ' Amther: diffiqçlty;ha.o boon the g ^ ^ h g i#osr;*b i july ofkpv# vloual#: leih@ mnÿ'modéa^TRoientlfiO 'h ^ - Thië:$i@8 '<the ::reoult pf plaoing'l ^ - these liypothéëéo.heyond the tmderatahding Of mPat prdihpiy péoplé&.\ C W r old vlouàlloEition of/matter no a oolid^vti^igihle lu%^ Imo dlpoolvad/ ihto-.:^^ unpertaihl^y with the'prpoonoe of )i#ter; ' inotead of being *demonot3^ t ç & % havihg to bo inferred in^teièno-ùf what appoaro to he.happon^nf it at any given moment in timo# % e nature of reality ban olmnged# m o t start with the event'no the ultimatertmit of ucvU t o I ooouzpnoo.