Ezra Pound and His Classical Sources

<br/>This book uses Ezra Pound's <i>The Cantos</i> as a lens to understand modernism's ambition to revolutionize literature through mythical and scientific methods. Homer's <i>Odyssey</i> plays a unique methodological and structural role in <i>The Cantos</i>. <i>The Cantos</i> translates interprets abridges adapts critiques parodies trivializes allegorizes and ritualizes the <i>Odyssey</i>. Partly inspired by Joyce's use of different literary styles or technics in <i>Ulysses</i> and partly inspired by medieval classicism and 19th century philology Pound uses a plethora of methods to translate Homer and other classical texts. This book argues that <i>The Cantos</i> is a modernist vision of the Matter of Troy a term used by medieval authors to designate the cycle of texts based on the Trojan war and its aftereffects including the nostoi (returns) of the Greek heroes.<br/><br/>This is the first study to explore how medieval classicism and translation informs Pound's mythical method and to systematically outline the variety and evolution of Pound's <i>Odyssey</i> translations in <i>The Cantos</i>.<br/><br/>