Table Of ContentBetsy van Schlun
The Pool Group and the Quest for Anthropological Universality
Buchreihe der ANGLIA/
ANGLIA Book Series
Edited by
Lucia Kornexl, Ursula Lenker, Martin Middeke,
Gabriele Rippl, Hubert Zapf
Advisory Board
Laurel Brinton, Philip Durkin, Olga Fischer, Susan Irvine,
Andrew James Johnston, Christopher A. Jones, Terttu Nevalainen,
Derek Attridge, Elisabeth Bronfen, Ursula K. Heise, Verena Lobsien,
Laura Marcus, J. Hillis Miller, Martin Puchner
Volume 55
Betsy van Schlun
The Pool Group
and the Quest for
Anthropological
Universality
The Humane Images of Modernism
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/36292
ISBN 978-3-11-043921-2
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-049108-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-048867-8
ISSN 0340-5435
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A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
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Contents
List of Illustrations XI
Acknowledgements XIV
Introduction 1
. The Pool Group: Its Formation, Financing, and Avant-garde Life-
style 4
. A New Humane and Universal Art 12
. State of Research on Pool 18
Part I Theory The Spirit of the Quest
The Autonomy and the Necessityof Art 23
. The Autonomy of Art 23
.. Bourdieu’s Theory of the Literary Field 23
.. The Literary and Artistic Field of Twentieth-Century Modernism 26
.. The Pool Members’ Positioning within the Literary and Artistic Field of
Modernism 36
.. Pool’s Attempt to Unite Avant-garde Aesthetics and ‘Pure’ Art with
‘Popular’ Culture 47
. The Necessity of Art 51
.. The Idea of Art asa Human Necessity throughout History 51
.. Eibl’s Poetical Animal and the Biological Need of the Human for
Art 55
.. The Importance of Natureand Biology for Pool and Their Art 59
Part II Technique and Style Towards a Universal Language
of Art
A Language Composed of Images and E/motion 69
. Montage & Metaphor and the Stream of Narrative 69
. Eisenstein and Cinematographic Metaphor 70
.. Eisenstein’s Collective Language of Emotion 71
.. Intellectual Film: Eisenstein’s Dialectical Language for the
Masses 73
VI Contents
. Imagism 77
.. Ezra Pound and the Clear, Objective Image 77
.. H.D.’s Ascetic Metaphors & Mythopoetic Montages 82
. Collage and Photomontage – Pool’s Scrapbook and Art for the Sake of
It: Playing with the Language of Human Psychology, Art and Film
Technique 90
.. Macpherson – Dynamic Forces of Life and Nature 92
.. H.D. – Simple Form and Abstraction 94
.. Bryher – ‘Pure’ Spirit and the Descent of the Gods 96
. Continuity: Literary Cycle of Life and Psychological-Realistic
Film 98
.. Dorothy Richardson and the Literary Series 99
.. Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Film and the ‘Invisible Cut’ 101
. Light, Vision and Film Art 113
Part III Philosophy The Quest for a Universal Foundation of
Human Life
Universal Sympathy and Universal Man: Pool’s Avant-gardist New
Humanism 121
. The Creative Power of Dreaming: Trans/Forming Affects into Visual
Images, Symbols and Narrative 125
.. Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams: Human Libidinal Wish-
Fulfilment and Pleasure Instincts 126
.. Hanns Sachs’ Community of Daydreams: From Subjective Wish-
Fulfilment to the Social Function of Art 130
. Myth Worlds and Anthropological Universalities: The Great Dynamics
of Being 136
.. The Myth of Narcissus and Its Transformation into Psychoanalytic
Concept and ‘Aesthetic Instinct’ 140
.. Life, Death, and Rebirth: The Universal Myth of Fertility and the Cult
of Regeneration 144
.. Nietzsche and the Artistic Drives of Nature: Greek Tragedy as Human
Psychology 149
. In Love with Life and Creation: Pool’s Biosophy and the Homo
Artes 153
Contents VII
Part IV Works of Love Pool’s Humane Art or: Their Artistic
Body
POOL Novels 161
. Poolreflection: The Mirror and the Self-Love of Art 165
.. The Mythical Figures of Narcissus and the Faun 166
... Narcissus, the Artistand the Mirror of Self-Reflection 166
... Narcissus, the Faun and the Fountain of Life 172
... Mythology and Mysticism – The Faun and the Poetic Vision 177
... Metamorphoses of the Great Works of Arts 181
.. Bildungsroman, Künstlerroman and Love Poetry 187
... Shakespeare’s Two Loves and the Tradition of Love Poetry 187
... ‘Grand Love’ and ‘Human Love’ – from Narcissism to
Compassion 192
... Poolreflection – Modernist Künstlerroman in Dialogue with Joyce and
Woolf 196
. Gaunt Island: Cinematographic Fiction of Celtic Sensitivity 203
.. Opposing “A New Sensitivity” to Modernist Objectivity 205
... Robin and the Artistic Principle of Love and Compassion 205
... Geoffrey – the Poetic Principle of Divine Vision and the
Sublime 210
... Elmo, the Mythic Unconscious, and the Psychology of Fear 215
... “Because of nerves, a face coming suddenly to the window was Grand
Guignol” 218
... The Corruption of Art and the Interaction of Macpherson’s Figures
as Agents in the Literary and Artistic Field 223
... Music and Mood: The Song of Life and the Bang of Survival 228
.. “Universal Regeneration”: K. Macpherson’s Gaunt Island versus T.S.
Eliot’s The Waste Land 235
. Reconciling the Opposites of Dream and Reality: A Conclusion to
Macpherson’s Novels 240
.. Poolreflection and Gaunt Island: Macpherson’s Dialectics of Art and of
Human Emotion 240
.. Amore: Macpherson’s Last Novel Rome 12 Noon 244
. The Other Fictional Works by POOL 246
.. Bryher, Civilians (1927) – “If you liked The End of St. Petersburg why
not try Civilians?” 247
.. E.L. Black, [John Ellerman] Why Do They Like It? (1927) – An
Adolescent Anti-Establishment Novel 250
VIII Contents
.. Oswald Blakeston, Extra Passenger (1929) – Another of the
Cinematographic Novels 253
Films by POOL Productions 257
. Film Fragments and Lost Films 258
.. Wing Beat – Transforming the Poetics of Imagism into Film 258
... H.D.’s Unpublished Essay “Wing Beat” or the Bird-Stuffers versus the
Beat of Art 261
... Advertising the Film in Close Up 265
.. Foothills – A Joint Venture 266
.. Monkey’s Moon – Happy Animal Nature 269
... The Art of Biosophy 269
... The History and Advertisement of the Film 276
.. I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside – A Satire on ‘Intellectual’ Film
Criticism 278
. Borderline: Happy Dream and Violent Passions or “Two Loves I Have
of Comfort and Despair” 280
.. History and Historical Context of Borderline 280
... The History and Reception of Borderline 280
... State of Research 283
... Confusing Sensations in Black and White 285
... An International Interracial Artistic Collaboration – Pool and Paul
Robeson, the Black Apollo of the Harlem Renaissance 289
.. The Symbolic Language of Borderline 294
... Dream Symbols and Key Figures of the Imagination: The Mythic Hero
Pete and the Witch 294
... Why the Use of Intertitles When Speaking in Metaphors and Conti-
nuous Association? 303
... The White Bacchantae and the Mentality of Lynching 310
... Secrets of the Souls – The Signature of G.W. Pabst 314
... The Lyre of the Black Apollo and the Wild Dance of Ecstasy – Uniting
‘High’ Art and Popular Entertainment 321
... Friendship and Universal Sympathy, and the Various Shades of
Human Life 331
POOL Architecture: The Villa KenWin 336
. Geographical Location and Its Literary Historical Context 336
. Modern Bauhaus Architecture in the Swiss Mountains 339
. KenWin – The Dialectics of Classic Modern Form and Nature 348
. Later Years through to Today (Outlook) 355
Contents IX
Close Up – A Popular Forum for Film and Film Culture 357
.. State of Research and the Close Up Anthology 359
. Wedding the Concept of the Avant-garde Little Magazines to Film
Journalism and Weimar Berlin Film Culture 361
. Macpherson’s Editorial “As Is” – Vox Populi of Film Art 370
.. “How furchtbar funny that an Englishman should have started Close
Up” 370
.. Film and Anthropological Aspects of Universality 379
. Film Journalism and Poetry: The Poetic Contributions of H.D. 384
.. The “Projector” Poems 385
.. “The Cinema and the Classics” – Classic Poetics for the
Public 389
. The ‘Purely’ Experimental Literary Contributions of Gertrude
Stein 394
. Dorothy Richardson’s Serial Column “Continuous
Performance” 402
Part V ~ The End ~
Conclusion: The Disintegrating Body of Pool and the Spirit of Art 409
Works Cited 417
Index of names 449
Index of Subjects 455
