Reframing Decadence: C. P. Cavafy's Imaginary Portraits
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.27 (519 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01612PZ82 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 472 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-03-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Cavafy at the crossroads of French decadence and British aestheticism, Hellenic belatedness and Roman decline, Byzantine taste and Pre-Raphaelite art, colonialism and homosexuality, modern empire and Greek diaspora. Peter Jeffreys, who seems to know more about Cavafy than any critic alive, shows how Cavafy's early stays in Britain and France gave him an intense foundation in an ongoing decadent tradition then emerging as a countercultural force in British and French writing, painting, and criticism. Peter Jeffreys, the emine
It was during these years that he encountered the canvases and personalities of Pre-Raphaelite painters, including Burne-Jones and Whistler, as well as works of aesthetic writers who were effecting a revolution in British literary culture and channeling influences from France that would gradually coalesce into an international decadent movement. In Reframing Decadence Peter Jeffreys returns us to this critical period of Cavafy's life, showing the poet's creative indebtedness to British and French avant-garde aesthetes whose collective impact on his poetry proved to be profound. During his sojourn in England during the 1870s, a young Cavafy found himself enthralled by the aesthetic movement of cosmopolitan London. Jeffreys concludes by considering Cavafy’s current popularity as a gay poet and his curious relation to kitsch as manifest in his ongoing popularity via translation and visual media.. Cavafy would move beyond Pater to explore a more openly homoerotic sensuality but he never quite abandoned this rich Victorian legacy,
Engaging and erudite James U. This book is impeccably researched and engaging. The academic argument is very generously interspersed with well-chosen excerpts from Cavafy's poetry and beautiful works of art (unfortunately reproduced only in black and white). Jeffreys is a champion of Cavafy's prose, which is far less familiar to non-specialists, and it was exciting to learn about this relatively unknown aspect of the writer's work. Anybody interested in Cavafy, in nineteenth-century aesthetes or decadence, or in the re. R Jay said Five Stars. Well researched and presented account.
He is the editor of The Forster-Cavafy Letters: Friends at a Slight Angle and author of Eastern Questions: Hellenism and Orientalism in the Writings of E. Cavafy.. Forster and C. Peter Jeffreys is Associate Professor of English at Suffolk University. P. M