Professor, Western University: Department of English Studies.

Interests

Until recently, my research interests have been related in one way or another to Ezra Pound, the author who is my principal focus, and Music. On the literary side, I have branched out in the directions of Modernism and American literature in general, as well as prosody and metrical theory. On the musical side, I have written about the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, and about musical and literary inter-relationships, especially as they relate to Pound.

Current Projects

Since co-editing The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia with Demetres Tryphonopoulos at UNB (a UWO alumnus) for Greenwood Press, I look forward to a number of short projects on Pound's musical connections, as well as a long-term project on the American ode.  This study traces the development of a highly political genre within the American tradition – beginning with the Poet of the American Revolution, Philip Freneau – through its appearance in connection with major crises in American history, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the rise of American imperialism.  It involves by the way questions about relationships among poetics, history, politics, and the purpose of poetry.

 

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