Cavafy among the modernists

Kolocotroni, V. (2021) Cavafy among the modernists. boundary 2, 48(2), pp. 59-87. (doi: 10.1215/01903659-8936684)

Abstract

Placing C. P. Cavafy among the modernists raises interesting questions. Which century can claim Cavafy? What does it mean to claim Cavafy for modernism? What space do we need to make for Cavafy in an approach to modernism that shapes and is shaped by his work? What re- and disorientations might that positioning require? Which nineteenth-century filiations does Cavafy carry over into his modernism? Is courage rather than contemporaneity a better guide in these orienteering exercises? This essay fleshes out these questions, asks a few more in the process, and attempts a set of triangulations and mediations between Cavafian and early twentieth-century words and worlds. This is not to trace influences or deep affinities but to deploy Cavafy as the “century's interlocutor,” in Paul's immodest but resonant phrase. Among the mediating or triangulated figures are F. T. Marinetti, E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, George Seferis, Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Vernon Lee, and Pierre Louÿs, with cameo appearances by Bertolt Brecht, Arthur Rimbaud, and Eugène Marsan.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Cavafy, modernism.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kolocotroni, Dr Vassiliki
• Authors: Kolocotroni, V.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PB Modern European Languages; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: boundary 2
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• ISSN: 0190-3659
• ISSN (Online): 1527-2141
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 by Duke University Press
• First Published: First published in boundary 2 48(2):59-87
• Publisher Policy: Reproduce in accordance with the publisher copyright policy