"Essenced to language": the margins of Isaac Rosenberg

PN0080 Criticism

Al-Joulan, Nayef Ali ; Pascoe, David

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Critical Studies

关键词: PN0080 Criticism;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4946/1/1999Al-JoulanPhd.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

Isaac Rosenberg was more than just a war poet, and a general failure to take this intoconsideration has contributed to the belated recognition of the distinctions of hiswork. He started writing long before the Great War and, as a working-class LondonJew, he schooled himself to respond to issues of class, culture, art and poetry. It wasthis combination of dependency and self-sufficiency which sustains his mature work;and which gave him a sense of himself as an Anglo-Jewish poet.In order to illuminate Rosenberg, Chapter One considers the conditions ofthe Jewishcommunity in the East End of London at the turn of the century, and examines thewriter's attitudes to the Zionism in vogue at the time. Chapter Two investigates thestriking echoes of Freudian psychology which feature in Rosenberg's work, andwhich are related to the Jewish heritage of both writers. Chapter Three investigatesRosenberg's feminine principle, suggesting that, as part of an Orphic vision of art, itfused an allegorical 'female god', with seductive females familiar from Jewishnarratives, effectively combining English and Hebrew cultures.Chapter Four traces Rosenberg's working-class literary heritage, and suggests thathis treatment of class differs from his Gentile contemporaries in that it parallelsFreudian and Marxist perceptions, while manifesting a modem Jewish insight.Chapter Five details the role class and race played in the critical marginalising ofRosenberg; special attention is given to the 'Georgian' literary ideals of the period,against which Rosenberg reacted and which influenced his reputation and thereception of his poetry. Chapter Six focuses on Rosenberg's debts of origin, and his'anxiety of influence', uncovering his revision of his precursors, in light of a modemurban, and Jewish perspective. The thesis concludes by examining Rosenberg's ideaof language as a vehicle for mental essence, suggesting that the roots for thisperception lie in the painter's mind, along with class and race associations.