로버트 로월의 미국 역사와 문명/화 비판

Abstract

From his early poetic career, Lowell began to attack his puritan forbears as well as his own family members who are considered to contribute to founding American history and civilization. Even though he was born into one of the most prominent Boston Brahmin families, he was in incessant friction with both of his paternal and maternal family members. He considered them corrupt, materialistic, and hypocritical. Needless to say, their corrupted way of life is definitely against the original cause of their crusade to the New Canaan. His early poetry deals with his recognition of their corruption: “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket”, “In Memory of Arthur Winslow”, and “At Indian Killer’s Grave.” Throughout his career, Lowell’s assault of American civilization extends to various areas of American society. In this case, his singular interest in the attack of his nation is deeply related to the individuals who mourn under mad and corrupt civilization: the figures in “A Negro Soldier at Munich”, “To Delmore Schwartz”, and “Words for Hart Crane”. Lowell’s pessimistic vision of American civilization results from his diagnosis of American society which lost its initial religious enthusiasm, thereby falling into violence, corruption, imperialism and commercial capitalism. In the latter part of Life Studies, however, Lowell seems to arrive at partial reconciliation with his family members and American civilization both of which have plagued himself throughout his life. Nevertheless, Lowell still seems to think that there is no cure for the corrupt civilization he experienced. In “For the Union Dead”, thus, his expression of nostalgic emotion toward the world of the less mechanized, pastoral landscapes consists in such a recognition of the civilization.