Vision of the Voyage: Hart Crane and the Psychology of Romanticism by Robert Combs (review)

308ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW Robert Combs. Vision of the Voyage: Hart Crane and the Psychology of Romanticism . Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1978. 181p. In Vision of the Voyage Robert Combs presents a forceful and unique view of the esthetic and philosophical tradition which spawned Hart Crane's poetry. In very concise prose he scans a phenomenological, psychological and romantic backdrop against which to view this major American poet. "Romanticism is a relocation of thought which occurs when an individual is able to express what is undeniably real to him without invoking any authority beyond his own experience," Combs writes on the initial page of the study. The brief 178 pages that follow explain and apply his definition logically and with credibility. Along the way Combs emphasizes the natural connections between such epistemologies as platonic idealism, Hegelian phenomenology, and the metaphysics of English romanticism . Later stages of Vision ofthe Voyage focus more precisely upon Crane's poetry itself. As one would imagine, thematically Combs emphasizes a romantic notion of irony, while focusing upon Crane's The Bridge. Vision of the Voyage becomes an ambitious effort. Because of the nature of its subject matter, the study relies heavily upon philosophical terminology, which inherently strives toward chaos. Combs, however, has restrained the use of jargon, which results in down-to-earth prose— I think a stylistic achievement. While not a work for undergraduates, the study lends itself not only to readers interested in Hart Crane, but to those interested in romanticism and modernism, as well. BRADLEY HAYDEN Western Michigan University Murray B. Emmeneau. Language and Linguistic Area: Essays by Murray B. Emmeneau . Selected and introduced by Anwar S. Dil. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980. xiv, 371p. This volume, one of a growing number in the Language Science and National Development series under the general editorship of Anwar S. Dil, contains fifteen essays by an eminent Indologist and Sanskrit scholar in which there is something for everyone interested in language and linguistics. Scholars whose specialities focus on areal studies will not find anything new in the seven essays grouped under the heading "India as a Linguistic Area," but having this material available in a single volume provides more than convenience; it provides ready accessibility to studies that are otherwise difficult to locate. Four additional essays deal with the Brahui language of Pakistan, a language of particular interest in that it is the only Dravidian language spoken in an area not contiguous with other Dravidian languages. The interested non-specialist (including this reviewer) will find clear and provocative discussions on matters dealing with areal studies of the Indian sub-continent in the section "Language and Linguistic Area: General". Beyond their clairity and precision , the distinguishing feature of these essays is found in the symbiotic relation between the general and specialized work: the general essays at the beginning of the book set the framework and foreshadow the specialized material that comes later; the specialized material supports and fills in detail of the larger issues which Prof. Emmeneau addresses in his introductory essays. As an example, we can take the topic of structural borrowing between languages in contact over a period of time. In "Diffusion and Evolution in Comparative Linguistics" the reader is introduced to a distinction that explains the different sets of relationships that exist ...