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Reframing Decadence : C. P. Cavafy's Imaginary Portraits / Peter G. Jeffreys.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2016]Copyright date: ©2016Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) : 14 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501701252
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 820
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue: “Dangerous Thoughts” -- 1. “Aesthetic to the point of affliction”: Cavafy and British Aestheticism 1. “Aesthetic to the point of affliction”: Cavafy and British Aestheticism -- 2. Translating Baudelaire: L’esprit Décadent and the Early Writings -- 3. Pictorialist Poetics: Transpositioning Word and Image -- 4. Paterian Decadence: Hellenism, Hedonism, and the Matter of Rome -- 5. Cavafy’s Byzantium: Historicizing Fantasies of Exquisite Decline -- Epilogue: Decadence’s Gay Legacy -- Bibliography -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index
Summary: During his sojourn in England during the 1870s, a young Cavafy found himself enthralled by the aesthetic movement of cosmopolitan London. It was during these years that he encountered the canvases and personalities of Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Burne-Jones and Whistler, as well as works of aesthetic writers who were effecting a revolution in British literary culture and channeling influences from France that would gradually coalesce into an international decadent movement. In Reframing Decadence Peter Jeffreys returns us to this critical period of Cavafy's life, showing the poet's creative indebtedness to British and French avant-garde aesthetes whose collective impact on his poetry proved to be profound. In the process, Jeffreys offers a critical reappraisal of Cavafy’s relation to Victorian aestheticism and French literary decadence.Foremost among the tropes of decadence that captivated Cavafy were the decline of imperial Rome, the rise of Christianity, and the lingering twilight of Byzantium. The influence of Walter Pater on Cavafy’s view of classical and late-antique history was immense, inflected as it was with an unapologetic homoerotic aesthetic that Cavafy would adopt as his own, making Pater’s imaginary portraits an important touchstone for his own historicizing poetry. Cavafy would move beyond Pater to explore a more openly homoerotic sensuality but he never quite abandoned this rich Victorian legacy, one that contributed greatly to his emergence as a global poet. Jeffreys concludes by considering Cavafy’s current popularity as a gay poet and his curious relation to kitsch as manifest in his ongoing popularity via translation and visual media.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501701252

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue: “Dangerous Thoughts” -- 1. “Aesthetic to the point of affliction”: Cavafy and British Aestheticism 1. “Aesthetic to the point of affliction”: Cavafy and British Aestheticism -- 2. Translating Baudelaire: L’esprit Décadent and the Early Writings -- 3. Pictorialist Poetics: Transpositioning Word and Image -- 4. Paterian Decadence: Hellenism, Hedonism, and the Matter of Rome -- 5. Cavafy’s Byzantium: Historicizing Fantasies of Exquisite Decline -- Epilogue: Decadence’s Gay Legacy -- Bibliography -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

During his sojourn in England during the 1870s, a young Cavafy found himself enthralled by the aesthetic movement of cosmopolitan London. It was during these years that he encountered the canvases and personalities of Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Burne-Jones and Whistler, as well as works of aesthetic writers who were effecting a revolution in British literary culture and channeling influences from France that would gradually coalesce into an international decadent movement. In Reframing Decadence Peter Jeffreys returns us to this critical period of Cavafy's life, showing the poet's creative indebtedness to British and French avant-garde aesthetes whose collective impact on his poetry proved to be profound. In the process, Jeffreys offers a critical reappraisal of Cavafy’s relation to Victorian aestheticism and French literary decadence.Foremost among the tropes of decadence that captivated Cavafy were the decline of imperial Rome, the rise of Christianity, and the lingering twilight of Byzantium. The influence of Walter Pater on Cavafy’s view of classical and late-antique history was immense, inflected as it was with an unapologetic homoerotic aesthetic that Cavafy would adopt as his own, making Pater’s imaginary portraits an important touchstone for his own historicizing poetry. Cavafy would move beyond Pater to explore a more openly homoerotic sensuality but he never quite abandoned this rich Victorian legacy, one that contributed greatly to his emergence as a global poet. Jeffreys concludes by considering Cavafy’s current popularity as a gay poet and his curious relation to kitsch as manifest in his ongoing popularity via translation and visual media.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024)