Language, Sexuality, and Ideology in Ezra Pound's CANTOS by Jean-Michel Rabaté (review)

Book Reviews115 joined by theoreticians, notably the brothers Schlegel, who throw their authority behind prose, the novel, and the Novelle (32), which they designate as the most appropriate medium for all kinds of human experience (33). It is not surprising, therefore, that before the nineteenth century is well under way, the Novelle has become probably the most popular literary form in Germany (58). In catering to new tastes, writers belonging to the Biedermeier period make the Novelle inclusive: it treats the fantastic, the idyllic, the reflective, the detective story. In effect, any short piece of prose can claim to be a Novelle. One reason for this may be that most prose narratives reached a broad audience in the ever popular kterary Almanachs (publisher's yearbook) among whose contributors are listed even the greatest masters: Stifter, Droste, Mörike Gotthelf, Grillparzer. By now, the sheer number of Novellen published makes one thing clear: rules are thrown to the four winds, "nobody seemed to know what a Novelle was and nobody seemed to care" (62). In his discussion of Shakespearean influence in Novellen by Keller, Hauf, and Ferdinand von Saar, who borrow from the tragedies Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and King Lear, respectively, Paulin shows that the Novelle shares with drama not only matters of form (e.g., peripeteia, suspense), but also themes. More debatable than Paulin's analysis of Shakespearean themes might be his unusual interpretation of Goethe's unerhörte Begebenheit, Tieck's Wendepunkt, and Heyse's Falke. By examining the contexts in which these terms are used, Paulin argues that because Goethe's oft-quoted phrase may go back to cas étrange or caso estraño of Renaissance practice (94), it restates the well known at a time when Goethe, contrarily, seemed to experiment with new approaches to narrative convention, namely writing Novelle, thus confusing the issue. Tieck's formula, on the other hand, means not the dramatic turning point we have come to associate with Novelle structure, but an inner attitude produced in the reader (100). Finally, Heyse's statement, found in his preface to Deutscher Novellenschatz (1871), cannot be applied to most novellas in this collection , let alone to novellas that survived and established themselves in world literature. In his concluding chapter, PauUn focuses on Theodor Storm's Der Schimmelreiter. This Novelle, he claims, combines broad scope, local subject, authentic narrator, treatment of nature and supernatural along with technical details. More than any other Novelle, Der Schimmelreiter shows "that prose, in its more economical form, has now achieved full maturity" (127), that "the Novelle stands on its own as one of the major achievements of German literature" (128). INGEBORG BAUMGARTNER Albion College JEAN-MICHEL RABATE. Language, Sexuality, and Ideology in Ezra Pound's CANTOS. Albany: SUNY Press, 1986. 339 p. Pound's Cantos have, for a variety of reasons, acquired the reputation of being masterful, profound, and important, yet at the same time abstruse, idiosyncratic, and incoherent. Rabaté's book, in approaching the Cantos from a structuralist/ ontological perspective, attempts to resolve this paradox by showing that allusiveness, eccentricity, and parataxis are fundamental structural and thematic features which, rather than working in opposition to the poem's more obvious strengths, comple- 116Rocky Mountain Review ment them and accentuate them. In general outline, such a view is not unique or even very novel, yet Rabaté, in turning to Jacques Lacan's theories of linguistic structure in relation to the human unconscious, finds a perspective and a vocabulary which allow him to precisely and systematically explore the language of the Cantos, especially in relation to psychological concerns. Along with Lacan, Heidegger is used to help clarify "the 'foundational' position of Pound as a poet" (2). Aware that any connections between Heidegger and Pound are tenuous, Rabaté does not seek to establish direct influence in either direction but rather to use Heidegger's conception of the role of the poet in a destitute time as a way of articulating the central mission of the Cantos. It follows, then, that this mission involves first revealing and diagnosing the destitution by entering and exploring the abyss. This exploration is largely the function of the early and middle Cantos with their focus on...