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Automatism In The Rite Of Spring By Viktor Sklovsky

Decent Essays

Viktor Shklovsky argued in his significant essay, “Art as Technique,” that the nature of our lives separates us from experience. This nature leads to the habituation of our perceptions and, thus, many aspects of our lives might go by unnoticed. Consequently, much of the beauty present in our lives might go overlooked. To combat habituation, Shklovsky believed art could restore our sensations and allow us to see this overlooked beauty. For art to restore our perceptions, however, it must make objects “unfamiliar” and difficult to perceive. Through this strategy, art will be removed from automatism and the length of our perceptions will be prolonged- allowing for the aestheticizing of art. This strategy is exemplified in the Rites of Spring …show more content…

Typically, Pound’s poems are densely packed with subjective allusions related to the themes of history, literature, politics, economics, and culture. Following Pound’s move from America to Europe, an additional theme found in many of his poems is a general form of cynicism towards America. This criticism of America and mass culture is exemplified through his poem, Hugh Selwyn Mauberry. In this poem, Pound’s new found understanding of European culture allowed him to complete a cross-cultural reflection of literature in the United States. Pound ingeniously constructed this poem by dividing it into several distinct sections. In the first section of this poem, Pound discreetly characterized himself as a struggling poet in America who appreciates aesthetics and the beauty of poetry. However, American society did not view literature in the same manner. Thus, he concludes America is a “half-savage land” in which his art and ideas are unable to flourish. To illustrate the feebleness of literature in America, Pound constructed a second section containing an allusionary autobiography using a third-person alter ego named Hugh Selwyn Mauberry. Pound used Hugh in this section to subjectively describe his experience as a 20th century poet in America. In this section, Pound criticized artists and publishers for caring more about sales and profits than the craft of literature itself. Throughout this allegory, it becomes apparent

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