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Conversations with the dead: The ontological substructure of Wallace Stevens' "Esthetique du Mal"

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Date Issued:
1999
Summary:
In "Esthetique du Mal," one of his later poems, Wallace Stevens considers existence from a variety of critical and philosophical perspectives, among them various moral, aesthetic, political, theological, and philosophic "epistemes" that condition how humanity perceives and experiences the world. These epistemological "modes" dictate how we live and perceive the world about us, providing preconceptions that shroud understanding and obfuscate ontological explanation. What Stevens accomplishes in "Esthetique du Mal" is to create a dialogue with various historical and philosophical "schools," systematically confronting and rejecting their perspectives, and creating a movement toward Martin Heidegger's "aletheia" to uncover the ontological substructure that exists beneath the individual's experience in the world. This movement of "uncovering" and exposing the nature of what it means "to be in the world" is a journey to an ontological substructure that allows Stevens to arrive at a dynamic, ontological proof: that existence is full of "reverberating" possibilities, not solitary and "univocal" statements.
Title: Conversations with the dead: The ontological substructure of Wallace Stevens' "Esthetique du Mal".
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Name(s): Danylyshen, Darren Joseph.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Pearce, Howard D., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 1999
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 96 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: In "Esthetique du Mal," one of his later poems, Wallace Stevens considers existence from a variety of critical and philosophical perspectives, among them various moral, aesthetic, political, theological, and philosophic "epistemes" that condition how humanity perceives and experiences the world. These epistemological "modes" dictate how we live and perceive the world about us, providing preconceptions that shroud understanding and obfuscate ontological explanation. What Stevens accomplishes in "Esthetique du Mal" is to create a dialogue with various historical and philosophical "schools," systematically confronting and rejecting their perspectives, and creating a movement toward Martin Heidegger's "aletheia" to uncover the ontological substructure that exists beneath the individual's experience in the world. This movement of "uncovering" and exposing the nature of what it means "to be in the world" is a journey to an ontological substructure that allows Stevens to arrive at a dynamic, ontological proof: that existence is full of "reverberating" possibilities, not solitary and "univocal" statements.
Identifier: 9780599492622 (isbn), 15702 (digitool), FADT15702 (IID), fau:12458 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1999.
Subject(s): Stevens, Wallace,--1879-1955--Esthʹetique du mal
Stevens, Wallace,--1879-1955--Criticism and interpretation
Ontology in literature
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15702
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
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Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.