Confessional Poetry and Music: John Berryman and Mircea Ivănescu
Keywords:
literature and music, American poetry, Berryman, John, Romanian poetry, Ivănescu, Mircea, confessional poetry, traumaAbstract
The study examines the works of two foremost confessional poets: the American John Berryman, with his deep interest in Bach, and the Romanian Mircea Ivănescu, with his lifelong obsession for Chopin, observing how, though greatly interested in music, they shared the same diffidence towards it.References
I. Works by John Berryman
a. Volumes mentioned
Berryman’s Shakespeare. Essays, Letters, and Other Writings by John Berryman. Edited by John Haffenden. With a Preface by Robert Giroux. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993.
Berryman, John. Stephen Crane. A Critical Biography. Revised Edition. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001.
– – –. The Dream Songs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981.
– – –. The Freedom of the Poet. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976.
b. Poems quoted
Dream Songs 103, 153, 204, 207, 208, 256, 258, 348.
All Dream Songs are quoted from the 1981 edition indicated supra.
Henry’s Understanding, quoted from Berryman, John. Collected Poems 1937–1971. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989.
II. Works by Mircea Ivănescu
a. Volumes mentioned
Ivănescu, Mircea. Poeme. Bucharest: Eminescu, 1970.
– – –. Poesii. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1970.
b. Poems quoted
“O vizită, seara” / “A Visit in the evening”
“Lupta dintre îngeri și nori sau despre trăsnet” / “The fight between the angels and the clouds or on thunder”
“Amintiri, XXX” / “Memories, XXX”
“Cinismul englez partea a doua sau continuarea parabolei despre muzică pe imagini de j. cocteau” / “English cynicism part two or the sequel of the fable about music with images by j. Cocteau”
Despre irealitatea amintirii / On the Irreality of Memory
All poems have been quoted from the following edition:
Ivănescu, Mircea. Versuri. Edited with a foreword and chronology by Al. Cistelecan. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2014.
(Mircea Ivănescu’s lines and titles translated by R. Vancu).
III. Works cited
Călinescu, Matei. “Poezia lui Mircea Ivănescu.” Mircea Ivănescu, versuri poeme poesii altele aceleași vechi nouă. Anthology and foreword by Matei Călinescu. Iași: Polirom, 2003.
Cărtărescu, Mircea. Postmodernismul românesc. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2010.
Coleman, Philip. John Berryman’s Public Vision. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2014.
Davie, Donald. “Problems of Decorum; The Freedom of the Poet.” New York Times April 25, 1976.
Donelan, James H. Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Gelpi, Albert. “The Genealogy of Postmodernism: Contemporary American Poetry.” The Southern Review 26.3 (1990).
Ivănescu, Emil. Artistul și moartea. Scrieri. Edited with an afterword by Raluca Dună. Presentations by Matei Călinescu, Alexandru George, and Alexandru Vona. Bucharest: Institutul Cultural Român, 2006.
Haffenden, John. The Life of John Berryman. London and New York: Routledge, Ark Paperbacks, 1982.
Kelly, Richard J. (ed.). We Dream of Honour. John Berryman’s Letters to His Mother. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
Kirby-Smith, H. T. The Celestial Twins: Poetry and Music Through Ages. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
Kivy, Peter. Antithetical Arts. On the Ancient Quarrel Between Literature and Music. London: Oxford University Press, 2009.
– – –. Music, Language, and Cognition and Other Essays in the Aesthetics of Music. London: Oxford University Press, 2007.
– – –. The Possessor and the Possessed. Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius. London and New York: Yale University Press, 2001.
Martz, William J. John Berryman. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1969.
Scruton, Roger. Understanding Music. Philosophy and Interpretation. London and New York: Continuum Books, 2009.
Stitt, Peter A. “The Art of Poetry No. 16. Interview with John Berryman.” The Paris Review 53 (1972).
Vaget, Hans Rudolf. Seelenzauber. Thomas Mann und die Musik. Frankfurt am Main: Samuel Fischer, 2006.
