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Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 'Bending in All Directions Everywhere' : A Juddering, Glimpsing, Eidolonging of Poets
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Deriving from the Ancient Greek etymons eidos ('form') and eido ('to see'), the modern term `'eidolon' transmutes into English in two interconnected ways: an eidolon can either be an idealised person or thing, or a spectre or phantom. In poetry, the term is often associated with Walt Whitman's poem of the same name, included in his 'Inscriptions' section of the 1881-82 edition of Leaves of Grass. In this apocryphal text, stanzas repeatedly conclude on the word 'eidolon' as if the repetitions are one means (semantic satiation) by which to challenge connections between signified and signifier. The American transcendentalist's poem offers 'a theory ; about  how a poet should handle, or mediate, form and materiality' Cohen 1), and the eidolon  remains paradoxical for Whitman, a 'spiritual image of the immatrerial' of which 'seeks to demonstrate the incompleteness of our understanding of reality' (Richardson 201)...' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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    y separately published work icon Westerly vol. 62 no. 2 2017 12822854 2017 periodical issue

    'Since its infancy, Westerly has a had a long interest in the literatures and cultures of the Indian Ocean, Southern and eastern Asia. Poised on the west coast, we are constantly looking out, facing away from mainland Australia. This space is not an empty one. It is rich with a history of movement and exchange, going back (as Sarah Ridhuan's essay in this issue reminds us) well beyond Australia's colonisation.' (Editorial introduction)

    2017
    pg. 121-133
Last amended 31 Jan 2018 11:36:37
121-133 'Bending in All Directions Everywhere' : A Juddering, Glimpsing, Eidolonging of Poetssmall AustLit logo Westerly
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