The Limits of American Literary Ideology in Pound and Emerson

Sep 21, 2026

Analyzes the limits of American literary ideology through close study of Ezra Pound and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The work develops arguments about political difference, critiques of capitalist literary production, and the economies of individualism, tracing how conceptions of experience, gender systems, and authority shape literary form. It further examines visionary capital, ideological tensions in the Pisan Cantos, and the relationship between ideology and genre in Pound’s poetics, linking textual practice to cultural debate.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages303

Reading Time7 h 47 min

AccessFree to download

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I

1 A Politics of Difference

2 Critiques of Capitalist (Literary) Production

3 Economies of Individualism

Part II

5 Visionary Capital

6 Ideologies of the Organic

Part III

7 Signs That Bind: Ideology and Form in Pound's Poetics

# The Limits of AmericanLiterary Ideologyin ● Pound and Emerson · ·Cary Wolfe· ## CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE ANDCULTURE The Limits of AmericanLiterary Ideology in Pound and Emerson ## Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture Editor Eric Sundquist,Vanderbilt University Founding editor Albert Gelpi,Stanford University Advisory Board Nina Baym,University of Illinois,Champaign-UrbanaSacvan Bercovitch,Harvard UniversityAlbert Gelpi,Stanford UniversityMyra Jehlen,University of Pennsylvania Carolyn Porter,University of California,BerkeleyRobert Stepto,Yale UniversityTony Tanner,King's College,Cambridge University Books in the series 68.Andrew Levy,America's Workshop:The Culture and Commerce of theShort Story 67.Stephen Fredman,The Grounding ofAmerican Poetry:Charles Olsonand the Emersonian Tradition 66.David Wyatt,Out of the Sixties:Storytelling and the Vietnam Genera-tion 65.Thomas Strychacz,Modernism,Mass Culture,and Professionalism 64.Elisa New,The Regenerate Lyric:Theology and Innovation in Ameri-can Poetry 63.Edwin S.Redkey,A Grand Amy of Black Men:Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army,1861-1865 62.Victoria Harrison,Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics of Intimacy 61.Edwin Sill Fussell,The Catholic Side of Henry James 60.Thomas Gustafson,Representative Words:Politics,Literature,and theAmerican Language,1776-1865 59.Peter Quartermain,Disjunctive Poetics:From Gertrude Stein and LouisZukofsky to Susan Howe 58.Paul Giles,American Catholic Arts and Fictions:Culture,Ideology,Aesthetics 57.Ann-Janine Morey,Religion and Sexuality in American Literature 56.Philip M.Weinstein,Faulkner's Subject:A Cosmos No One Owns 55.Stephen Fender,Sea Changes:British Emigration and AmericanLiterature 54.Peter Stoneley,Mark Twain and the Feminine Aesthetic ## The Limits of American Literary Ideologyin Pound and Emerson CARY WOLFEIndiana University,Bloomington CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge,New York,Melbourne,Madrid,Cape Town,Singapore,São Paulo,Delhi Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building,Cambridge CB28RU,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press,New York www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title:www.cambridge.org/9780521107327 ◎ Cambridge University Press 1993 This publication is in copyright.Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1993This digitally printed version 2009 A catalogue record for this publication is availablefrom the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Wolfe,Cary The limits of American literary ideology in Pound and Emerson/CaryWolfe. p.cm.-(Cambridge studies in American literature and culture;69)Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-44555-8 1.American literature-History and criticism.2.Individualism inliterature.3.Emerson,Ralph Waldo,1803-1882-Poltical and social views.4.Pound,Ezra,1885-1972-Political and social views.5.Politics and literature-United States.6.Literature and society-United States.I.Title.II.Series. PS169.I53W65 1993 810.9'358-dc20 93-18475 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-44555-9 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-10732-7 paperback Permissions The last section of Chapter 5 originally appeared,in slightly differentform,in American Literature,which has graciously granted permissionto reprint. Quotations from the works of Ezra Pound are used by permissionof New Directions Publishing Corporation: Ezra Pound:Selected Prose 1909-1965.Copyright O1963 by The Estateof Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound:Selected Leters of Ezra Pound 1907-1941.Copyright o 1950by Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound:Pavannes and Divagations.Copyright ◎ 1958by Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound:Literary Essays of Ezra Pound.Copyright o1935 by Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound:Personae.Copyrig

FAQs

This book focuses on which two authors?

The book focuses on Ezra Pound and Ralph Waldo Emerson, using their work to examine American literary ideology.

What themes are addressed in Part I?

Part I centers on a politics of difference, critiques of capitalist literary production, and the economies of individualism.

How does the book relate ideology to literary form in later sections?

In Part III, it emphasizes how ideology and form interact in Pound’s poetics and how didactic logic and genre politics shape interpretation.

Sep 21, 2026

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