オルソンの詩学 : 1968年8月，マサチューセッツ州グロスターより

This paper examines some of the major themes in the poetics of the American Postmodernist poet and essayist Charles Olson (1910-1970) as revealed in the collection of Olson’s lectures and interviews from 1962 to 1969 entitled Muthologos . Readers of Muthologos find four recurring themes there. They are (1) Olson’s admiration of the French phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, (2) his interest in Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s concept of “montage,” (3) his notion of “the break-out of 1956” in art, and (4) his idea of “the ideal city.” The first three of these themes are discussed in an entry entitled “Interview in Gloucester, August 1968,” based on an interview conducted with Olson by a Swedish woman who was impressed with Call Me Ishmael (1947), Olson’s renowned analysis of Melville’s Moby-Dick . More detailed discussion of Olson’s great interest in Merleau-Ponty can be found in another entry in Muthologos , “Under the Mushroom,” a round table talk. Olson’s idea of “the ideal city,” the fourth recurring theme, is elaborated on in “On Black Mountain,” an informal talk conducted by Olson in 1968. “Interview in Gloucester,” “Under the Mushroom,” and “On Black Mountain” reveal the following related to the four themes in question: (1) Olson admired Merleau-Ponty because the latter constructed his philosophy consistently relying on his own perception. Olson’s “objectism” [sic], proclaimed boldly in his essay “Projective Verse,” was to some degree supported by Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the “object,” although Merleau-Ponty did not make as much of the “object” as Olson did, considering “attention” and “motive” to be more important than the “object.” (2) According to Eisenstein, “montage” connects more than two images and gives birth to the concept of a higher dimension. Olson refrained from talking about “montage,” because he thought that “montage” should be explained by Eisenstein himself. Olson talked rather about a concept related to “montage,” which he called “ samtal ,” a Swedish word meaning “conversation” (although Olson did not limit the meaning of “ samtal ” to “conversation”). Olson claimed that “ samtal ” reminds us of the first stages of Indo-European language, and that “ samtal ” has the power to smash our rigidly-structured civilization to pieces and impart to us the knowledge and awareness necessary to make a new start. (3) Olson talked enthusiastically about “the break-out of 1956” in art. However, it is very difficult to determine what exactly happened in 1956 in the art world that would constitute a “break-out.” According to Olson, in 1856, G. F. B. Riemann gave an epoch-making lecture on geometry, Melville left for Jerusalem after writing The Confidence-Man , and Whitman published Leaves of Grass . Since 1956 was the year which came exactly 100 years after that eventful year of 1856, Olson may have thought that something great necessarily had happened in 1956, but he does not identify it, and examination of the historical record does not reveal anything as significant as a “break-out” in art in 1956. (4) When Olson was the rector of Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1951-56, the financial situation of the school was critical. Half of the faculty members quit, and student enrollment was down. Most of the remaining faculty members were ready, albeit reluctantly, to close down the college in 1953. Olson said, “Let’s remember All Men Are Brothers . We don’t fit into this capitalistic world, but so what?” In Olson’s conception, Black Mountain College was “an ideal city” where non-capitalist ideas were welcome, and students and teachers could try hard to do something good. Olson, as the last rector, transformed the College from an art-centered institution into a literature-centered one, and invited poets and published the Black Mountain Review . The college thrived under Olson’s leadership as an “ideal city” in its final years. Focusing on the content of the entries in Muthologos , this paper examines the above four themes at length in order to achieve a fuller understanding of Olson’s poetics and world view. Its principal conclusion is that there is an element common to all four of the themes in Olson’s poetics, namely his firm belief that we should and can find a way to progress to a more advanced level of existence, one that transcends our current one constrained by capitalist principles, a state akin to the “ideal city” of the ancient philosophers.