Archeologist of Morning
Charles Olson, Edward Dorn and Historical Method
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16006443 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mario Davidson (0000-0002-0638-7096, corresponding author), Michael Davidson (0000-0002-4698-1719) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 158-158 |
| Publication date | 1980-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | ELH (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-8304 • E-ISSN: 1080-6547 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2872444 |
| OpenAlex | W2313240486 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 1 |
Charles Olson's inaugural remarks on literature accompany his first thoughts on history. Call Me Ishmael, the poet's 1947 book on Melville, is a sustained meditation on space the ''central fact to man born in America.1 Moby Dick chronicles the misuse of this space through mercantilism and industry viewed through North Atlantic whaling. are the last 'first' people, Olson says; forget that. We act big, misuse our land, ourselves. We lose our own primary.2 The democratic ideal, thematized in the various backgrounds of the Pequod's crew, becomes vulnerable to the industry of which the boat is a part. Ahab represents the mania of America's underlying, acquisitive nature. Whaling was production, Olson explains, as old the colonies and, in capital and function, forerunner to a later America, with more relation to Socony than to clippers and the China trade .3 When Olson brought such terms to bear on his own epic of American space, The Maximus Poems, he turned to a specific town, Gloucester Massachussetts, which would serve a microcosm for America
Art · Art history · Classics · History · Poetry Analysis and Criticism
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2023 (15) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |