Images of “Social Upheaval”: William Carlos Williams’ Documentary Style
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The aftermath of the Depression in the 1930s brings about an enormous change in Williams’ prose and poetry. Heavily influenced by photography, Williams desires to visualize the atmosphere of “social upheaval” in his works. His commitment to Objectivism is also based on straight photography. In the Depression, Williams produced lots of short stories and poetry on the working-class and proletarian people, feeling empathy for them. In portraying them, he realizes the inadequacy of Objectivism due to its strict form, lack of emotion and impersonality. In this period, the poet attempts to combine his emotional and subjective “I” with his Objectivist vision so that he can create distinctly American poetry. Evans’s “documentary style” photography inspires Williams to construct a new poetics getting out of sheer Objectivism. In his laudatory review “Sermon With a Camera,” Williams penetrates the unique power of Evans’s photographs distinguished from his contemporary photographers. Significantly, Evans’s photographs are based on “contact” and “locality,” acting as the poet’s primary poetic principles. Moreover, the lyrical elements of his photographs are visually embodied as the “vulgarity of beauty” or “Beautiful Thing” in Williams’ poetry. The non-Objectivist vision of Williams’ short stories and poetry from the 1930s is well suited to Evans’s “documentary style” photography. The working-class and proletarian people standing against the extreme harsh realities of misery appear as the “Beautiful Thing” in Williams’ works. For Williams, the “Beautiful Thing” is quite the same as the “eloquent” and “fluent” images in poetry, which become the essence of “documentary style” poetics. Ultimately, Williams’ poetry including his epic Paterson since the 1930s should be understood as an extension of “documentary style” poetics.
Abstract
The aftermath of the Depression in the 1930s brings about an enormous change in Williams’ prose and poetry. Heavily influenced by photography, Williams desires to visualize the atmosphere of “social upheaval” in his works. His commitment to Objectivism is also based on straight photography. In the Depression, Williams produced lots of short stories and poetry on the working-class and proletarian people, feeling empathy for them. In portraying them, he realizes the inadequacy of Objectivism due to its strict form, lack of emotion and impersonality. In this period, the poet attempts to combine his emotional and subjective “I” with his Objectivist vision so that he can create distinctly American poetry. Evans’s “documentary style” photography inspires Williams to construct a new poetics getting out of sheer Objectivism. In his laudatory review “Sermon With a Camera,” Williams penetrates the unique power of Evans’s photographs distinguished from his contemporary photographers. Significantly, Evans’s photographs are based on “contact” and “locality,” acting as the poet’s primary poetic principles. Moreover, the lyrical elements of his photographs are visually embodied as the “vulgarity of beauty” or “Beautiful Thing” in Williams’ poetry. The non-Objectivist vision of Williams’ short stories and poetry from the 1930s is well suited to Evans’s “documentary style” photography. The working-class and proletarian people standing against the extreme harsh realities of misery appear as the “Beautiful Thing” in Williams’ works. For Williams, the “Beautiful Thing” is quite the same as the “eloquent” and “fluent” images in poetry, which become the essence of “documentary style” poetics. Ultimately, Williams’ poetry including his epic Paterson since the 1930s should be understood as an extension of “documentary style” poetics.
참고문헌 (29)
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