Benjamin, Poetry, and Criticism |
Reconsidering the "Spiritual Economy": Saint-John Perse, His Translators, and the Limits of Internationalism
Harris Feinsod
Although he won the 1960 Nobel Prize and maintained a measure of global acclaim past this award, the poetry of Saint-John Perse has fallen into general obscurity and critical disregard outside the poet's linguistic patrimony, where he belongs primarily to a national, scholastic poetic tradition.1 Perse's appurtenance to a French national canon—and his near anonymity outside of it—both raise a variety of questions specific to Perse, though I hope that they may also have some more generic theoretical value. This essay may thus be read as a case study in what is being called world literature. I map the vicissitudes...
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