Sarah Daw
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474430029
- eISBN:
- 9781474453783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474430029.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Chapter One interrogates Paul Bowles’s presentation of the human relationship to Nature in his bestselling novel The Sheltering Sky (1949). In his autobiography Without Stopping (1972), Bowles ...
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Chapter One interrogates Paul Bowles’s presentation of the human relationship to Nature in his bestselling novel The Sheltering Sky (1949). In his autobiography Without Stopping (1972), Bowles describes a “secret connection between the world of nature and the consciousness of man” that is activated by the presence of the North African desert landscape. The chapter investigates the prevalence of such interactions between the human mind and the desert landscape across Bowles’s fiction and non-fiction writing, and demonstrates the degree to which Bowles’s exposure to Sufism shaped his literary depictions of an infinite, ecological Nature with the power to influence and annihilate the human. This chapter reads The Sheltering Sky (1949) alongside Bowles’s extensive non-fiction travel writing, in order to expose the influence of Sufism on the novel’s depictions of an infinite and annihilating desert landscape.Less
Chapter One interrogates Paul Bowles’s presentation of the human relationship to Nature in his bestselling novel The Sheltering Sky (1949). In his autobiography Without Stopping (1972), Bowles describes a “secret connection between the world of nature and the consciousness of man” that is activated by the presence of the North African desert landscape. The chapter investigates the prevalence of such interactions between the human mind and the desert landscape across Bowles’s fiction and non-fiction writing, and demonstrates the degree to which Bowles’s exposure to Sufism shaped his literary depictions of an infinite, ecological Nature with the power to influence and annihilate the human. This chapter reads The Sheltering Sky (1949) alongside Bowles’s extensive non-fiction travel writing, in order to expose the influence of Sufism on the novel’s depictions of an infinite and annihilating desert landscape.
Nadine Hubbs
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241848
- eISBN:
- 9780520937956
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241848.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This book shows how a gifted group of Manhattan-based gay composers were pivotal in creating a distinctive “American sound” and in the process served as architects of modern American identity. ...
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This book shows how a gifted group of Manhattan-based gay composers were pivotal in creating a distinctive “American sound” and in the process served as architects of modern American identity. Focusing on a circle that included Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, and David Diamond, the book homes in on the role of these artists' self-identification—especially with tonal music, French culture, and homosexuality—in the creation of a musical idiom that even today signifies “America” in commercials, movies, radio and television, and the concert hall.Less
This book shows how a gifted group of Manhattan-based gay composers were pivotal in creating a distinctive “American sound” and in the process served as architects of modern American identity. Focusing on a circle that included Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, and David Diamond, the book homes in on the role of these artists' self-identification—especially with tonal music, French culture, and homosexuality—in the creation of a musical idiom that even today signifies “America” in commercials, movies, radio and television, and the concert hall.
Melissa J. De Graaf
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036781
- eISBN:
- 9780252093890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036781.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter examines the question of authenticity surrounding Paul Bowles's Denmark Vesey. Featuring music by Bowles set to a libretto by Charles Henri Ford, Denmark Vesey incorporates racial ...
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This chapter examines the question of authenticity surrounding Paul Bowles's Denmark Vesey. Featuring music by Bowles set to a libretto by Charles Henri Ford, Denmark Vesey incorporates racial politics and Marxist allusions. Its language and music emphasize Africanisms and African American folklore, much of it thoroughly researched and, in Bowles and Ford's minds, authentic. This chapter first considers “authentic” representations of blackness in Denmark Vesey before discussing some of the opera's prominent themes, including Love versus Hate and the use of animal masks. It also explores Denmark Vesey's evocation of Communist-style revolution, paying particular attention to the conflicts and the gradual alliance between blacks and the Left as elements that set up the context of the opera. Finally, it analyzes the demise of Denmark Vesey due to the loss of the score and explains how Bowles and Ford achieved a distinctive result in their integration of race and politics as well as their bridging of race and labor unrest of the 1820s and 1930s.Less
This chapter examines the question of authenticity surrounding Paul Bowles's Denmark Vesey. Featuring music by Bowles set to a libretto by Charles Henri Ford, Denmark Vesey incorporates racial politics and Marxist allusions. Its language and music emphasize Africanisms and African American folklore, much of it thoroughly researched and, in Bowles and Ford's minds, authentic. This chapter first considers “authentic” representations of blackness in Denmark Vesey before discussing some of the opera's prominent themes, including Love versus Hate and the use of animal masks. It also explores Denmark Vesey's evocation of Communist-style revolution, paying particular attention to the conflicts and the gradual alliance between blacks and the Left as elements that set up the context of the opera. Finally, it analyzes the demise of Denmark Vesey due to the loss of the score and explains how Bowles and Ford achieved a distinctive result in their integration of race and politics as well as their bridging of race and labor unrest of the 1820s and 1930s.
Howard Pollack
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190458294
- eISBN:
- 9780190458324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190458294.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Latouche had friendship with a circle dubbed by Virgil Thomson “The Little Friends,” which included Harry Dunham, Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, and Latouche’s future wife Theodora Griffis, the scion of a ...
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Latouche had friendship with a circle dubbed by Virgil Thomson “The Little Friends,” which included Harry Dunham, Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, and Latouche’s future wife Theodora Griffis, the scion of a distinguished and wealthy family. Latouche introduced Jane and Paul Bowles to each other. Latouche’s romantic relationship with Griffis led to marriage, although both were essentially homosexual. The Little Friends formed part of a larger group that included notable composers, such as Copland and Thomson, and artists, such as Kristians Tonny and Frederick Kiesler. Several of these artist friends drew Latouche’s portrait and photographed him. The social settings of these friends included the celebrated salon of Kirk Askew and his wife.Less
Latouche had friendship with a circle dubbed by Virgil Thomson “The Little Friends,” which included Harry Dunham, Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, and Latouche’s future wife Theodora Griffis, the scion of a distinguished and wealthy family. Latouche introduced Jane and Paul Bowles to each other. Latouche’s romantic relationship with Griffis led to marriage, although both were essentially homosexual. The Little Friends formed part of a larger group that included notable composers, such as Copland and Thomson, and artists, such as Kristians Tonny and Frederick Kiesler. Several of these artist friends drew Latouche’s portrait and photographed him. The social settings of these friends included the celebrated salon of Kirk Askew and his wife.
Sarah Daw
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474430029
- eISBN:
- 9781474453783
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474430029.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals ...
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Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals the prevalence of portrayals of Nature as an infinite, interdependent ecological system in American literature written between 1945 and 1971. It also highlights the Cold War’s often overlooked role in environmental history, and argues for the repositioning of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) within what is shown to be a developing trend of ecological presentations of Nature in literature written after 1945. Ecocritical analysis is combined with historicist research to expose the unacknowledged role of a globally diverse range of non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies in shaping Cold War writers’ ecological presentations of Nature, including Sufism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The book contains chapters on J. D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Mary McCarthy. It also introduces the regional writer Peggy Pond Church, exploring the synergies between the depictions of Nature in her writings and in those of her neighbour and correspondent, the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The place and function of Nature in each writer’s work is assessed in relation to the most recent developments in the field of ecocriticism, and each of the book’s six author case studies is investigated through a combination of textual analysis and detailed archival and historicist research.Less
Writing Nature is the first full-length ecocritical study of Cold War American literature. The book analyses the function and representation of Nature in a wide range of Cold War texts, and reveals the prevalence of portrayals of Nature as an infinite, interdependent ecological system in American literature written between 1945 and 1971. It also highlights the Cold War’s often overlooked role in environmental history, and argues for the repositioning of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) within what is shown to be a developing trend of ecological presentations of Nature in literature written after 1945. Ecocritical analysis is combined with historicist research to expose the unacknowledged role of a globally diverse range of non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies in shaping Cold War writers’ ecological presentations of Nature, including Sufism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. The book contains chapters on J. D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Mary McCarthy. It also introduces the regional writer Peggy Pond Church, exploring the synergies between the depictions of Nature in her writings and in those of her neighbour and correspondent, the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The place and function of Nature in each writer’s work is assessed in relation to the most recent developments in the field of ecocriticism, and each of the book’s six author case studies is investigated through a combination of textual analysis and detailed archival and historicist research.
Wai Chee Dimock
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198714170
- eISBN:
- 9780191782596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198714170.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores the concept of a ‘networked modernism’, which demands a reaching beyond the boundaries of the corpus of a single author. The discussion starts with a place, Gibraltar, which ...
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This chapter explores the concept of a ‘networked modernism’, which demands a reaching beyond the boundaries of the corpus of a single author. The discussion starts with a place, Gibraltar, which plays a central role in James Joyce’s Ulysses. In its idealization, ‘it is as much a concept as it is a physical locality’, aligned with the Atlas Mountains and, implicitly, with Atlas’s daughter Calypso: ‘the Calypso effect’ identified here relates to the etymology of the nymph’s name, which derives from the Greek for ‘to cover, to conceal, or to hide’. The effect is, it is argued, a central aspect of modernist aesthetics. In the writings of Ezra Pound and Paul Bowles on Gibraltar and Morocco, a superabundance of detail creates an ‘atmospheric blur’ through which we see mere glimpses of geopolitical, religious, and historical formations.Less
This chapter explores the concept of a ‘networked modernism’, which demands a reaching beyond the boundaries of the corpus of a single author. The discussion starts with a place, Gibraltar, which plays a central role in James Joyce’s Ulysses. In its idealization, ‘it is as much a concept as it is a physical locality’, aligned with the Atlas Mountains and, implicitly, with Atlas’s daughter Calypso: ‘the Calypso effect’ identified here relates to the etymology of the nymph’s name, which derives from the Greek for ‘to cover, to conceal, or to hide’. The effect is, it is argued, a central aspect of modernist aesthetics. In the writings of Ezra Pound and Paul Bowles on Gibraltar and Morocco, a superabundance of detail creates an ‘atmospheric blur’ through which we see mere glimpses of geopolitical, religious, and historical formations.