Poetics of the City: Urban Characters and Images in Arthur Symons’s Poems

Abstract

This study dealt with the representations of the city along with characters and images in Arthur Symons’s (1865-1945) selected poems. Symons was a significant poet of English fin de siécle period with his poems and literary works. He developed the inheritance he got from the Victorian verse and paved the way to modernism. Therefore, he became one of the key figures of modernism by means of his treatment of city life in his poems, for example, he employed certain places and locations from music halls to brothels, graveyards to prisons. As for the critical framework, Henri Lefebvre’s space theory was applied in this paper because he explored space from a social perspective which rendered scholars to concentrate on the city with all its components as well. This paper aimed at revealing the relationship between the city and poetry by analysing the urban elements in Symons’s poems with regard to Lefebvre’s theory.

Keywords

• Arthur Symons
• Urban Space
• City
• Poetry
• Fin de Siécle

Şehrin Poetikası: Arthur Symons Şiirlerinde Kentsel Karakterler ve İmgeler

Abstract

Bu çalışmada Arthur Symons (1865-1945)’ın seçili şiirlerinde karakterleri ve imgeleriyle şehrin temsili incelenmiştir. Symons şiirleriyle ve edebi çalışmalarıyla İngiliz fin de siécle döneminin önemli bir şairidir. Viktorya döneminin sonu ile Edwardiyan dönemi arasında kalan fin de siécle dönemi İngiliz tarihinde kendine özgü bir dönem olarak kabul edilebilir. Symons Viktorya dönemi şiirinde devraldığı mirasın üzerine koyarak Modernist edebiyata giden yolun önünü açmıştır. Dolayısıyla şiirlerindeki şehir hayatını ele alış biçimiyle Modernist edebiyatın kilit isimlerinden biri olmuştur, örneğin, müzikholden geneleve, mezarlıklardan hapishanelere kadar uzanan pek çok yeri ve mekânı şiirinde kullanmıştır. Kullandığı mekânsal imgeler bağlamında bakıldığında Symons fin de siécle döneminin şiirini biçimlendiren temel şairlerden biri olarak belirir. Çalışmanın teorik altyapısı için Henri Lefebvre’in mekân teorisi kullanılmıştır çünkü Lefebvre mekânı sosyal bir bakış açısından değerlendirmiştir; bu da pek çok akademisyenin şehri tüm elemanlarıyla incelemelerine olanak sağlamıştır. Bu çalışma, Lefebvre’nin mekân teorisini uygulayarak Symons’ın şiirlerindeki kentsel unsurları analiz ederek kent ve şiir arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır

Keywords

• Arthur Symons
• Kentsel Mekân
• Şehir
• Şiir
• Fin de Siecle

References

1. Adams, J. E. (2014). Victorian sexualities. Herbert F. Tucker. (Ed). A new com-panion to Victorian literature and culture. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. 124-137
2. Arata, S. (1990). The occidental tourist: “Dracula” and the anxiety of reverse colonization, Victorian studies. 33.(4). s. 621-645.
3. Barry, P. (2000). Contemporary British poetry and the city. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP.
4. Beckson, K. (1992). London in the 1890s: A cultural history. New York: Norton & Company.
5. Christ, C. T. (2007). Introduction: Victorian poetics, Richard Cronin, Alison Chapman, and Anthony H. Harrison. (Eds). A companion to Victorian poetry. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 1-21.
6. Evans, I. (1966). English poetry in the later nineteenth century. London: Methuen.
7. Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality volume 1: An introduction
8. (Trans. R. Hurley) New York: Pantheon Books

9. Goldfarb, R. M. (1963). “Arthur Symons’ decadent poetry.” Victorian poetry. 1.(3) 231-231.
10. Gordon, J. B. (1971). “The danse macabre of Arthur Symons’ ‘London nights.’” Victorian poetry. 9.(4) 429-443.
11. Laqueur, W. (1996). “Fin-de-siècle: Once more with feeling.” Journal of contem-porary history. 31.(1), s. 5-47.
12. Jackson, H. (1922). The eighteen nineties: A review of art and ideas at the close of the nineteenth century. London: Grant Richards.
13. Lefebvre, H. (1991) The production of space. (Trans. D. Nicholson- Smith) Oxford: Blackwell.
14. Lefebvre, H. (2000). Writings on cities. (Trans. E. Kofman and E. Lebas) Oxford: Blackwell.
15. Lefebvre, H. (2003). The urban revolution. (Trans. R. Bononno) Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P.
16. Lefebvre, H. (2009). “Space and the state.” State, space and world: Selected essays. N. Brenner & S. Elden Eds. (Trans. N. Brenner & S. Elden) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 223-253
17. Mayhew, H. (1862). London labour and the London poor: Cyclopaedia of the condi-tion and earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work. London: Griffin, Bohn, and Company.
18. Muddiman, B. (1921). The men of the nineties. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
19. Munro, J. M. (1969). Arthur Symons. New York: Twayne Publishers.
20. Paglia, C. (2001). Sexual personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dick-inson. Yale Nota Bene: New Haven.
21. Perkins, D. (1977). A history of modern poetry: From the 1890s to the high modern-ist mode. Massachusetts: Harvard UP.
22. Simmel, G. (1950). The sociology of Georg Simmel. (Trans. K. H. Wollf.) Illinois: The Free Press.
23. Slinn, E. W. (2014). Poetry, Herbert F. Tucker. (Eds). A new companion to Victori-an literature and culture, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. 333-348.
24. Spears, M. (1970). Dionysus and the city: Modernism in twentieth- century poetry. New York: Oxford UP.
25. Symons. A. (1895). London nights. London: Leonard C. Smithers.
26. Symons. A. (1896). Silhouettes. London: Leonard Smithers.
27. Symons. A. (1913). Knave of hearts. London: William Heinemann.
28. Symons. A. (1917). Amoris victima. London: Leonard Smithers.
29. Symons. A (1919). The Symbolist movement in literature. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.
30. Thain, M. (2007). Poetry, Gail Marshall. (Ed). The Cambridge companion to the fin de siècle. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. 223-240.
31. What is fin de siécle? (1893). The art critic. 1.(1). s. 9.