Cities of Saviors: Urban Space in E. E. Cummings’ Complete Poems, 1904–1962, and Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor

169 Pages·2015·1.67 MB·English

by  Zénó Vernyik

c2015 Zénó Vernyik
c22015 Szeged, AMERICANA eBooks
General editors: Réka M. Cristian & Zoltán Dragon
Manuscript reviewed by Taimi Olsen and Petr Chalupský
ISBN 978-615-5423-11-6 (print)
ISBN 978-615-5423-09-3 (mobi)
ISBN 978-615-5423-10-9 (epub)

AMERICANA eBooks is a division of AMERICANA – E-Journal of American
Studies in Hungary, published by the Department of American Studies,
University of Szeged, Hungary.
http://ebooks.americanaejournal.hu

Book & cover design by Zoltán Dragon

C
This book is released under the Creative Commons 3.0 – Attribution –
NonCommercial – NoDerivs 3.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) licence.
For more information, visit:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.hu

Acknowledgement ...................................................................................... i
1. The Sacred City with a Twist: An Introduction ...................................... 1
2.1. E. E. Cummings and Urban Space: The Reception .............................. 5
2.2. The Nature of Urban Space in E. E. Cummings’ Poetry ...................... 9
2.2.1. The City as Savior vs the Zen Axiom .............................................. 13
2.2.2. The City in Selected Poems of the Author’s Later Volumes ............ 17
2.3. From a Bird’s Eye View towards the Temples: Specific Heterotopic
Localities of E. E. Cummings’ New York City ......................................... 29
2.4. Mapping the Space of the City: Cartographic and Sacred Fictional
Space ....................................................................................................... 38
2.5. Faces in the Crowd: The Space of the City’s Inhabitants ................... 42
3.1. Peter Ackroyd’s London: The Reception ........................................... 50
3.2. Hawksmoor: the London of the Architect ........................................... 58
3.3. The Existing Critical Interpretation of Hawksmoor’s Urban Spaces ..... 62
3.3.1. A Criticism of the City as Abject Female Body ............................... 65
3.4. The Cartographic Fictional Space of Hawksmoor ................................ 82
ZÉNÓ VERNYIK
3.5. Sacred Heterotopias: An Alternative Reading of the Urban Sphere of
Hawksmoor............................................................................................................... 97
4. The Urban Space of E. E. Cummings’ Poetry and Peter Ackroyd’s
Fiction: A Comparison ....................................................................................... 117
5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 131
Works Cited ......................................................................................................... 135
Appendix 1: A List of Cummings’ Words Presumably Used in an Urban
Context ................................................................................................................. 142
Appendix 2: A Revised List of Cummings’ Words Used in an Urban
Context ................................................................................................................. 145
Appendix 3: A Preliminary List of Cummings’ Urban Poems .................... 148
Appendix 4: Final List of Cummings’ New York Poems ............................ 152

An acknowledgement is probably like an acceptance speech at the annual
ceremonies of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:
long, and for the majority of those present, inevitably boring. But only for
that majority, since there is another, small, but enthusiastic circle of people
for whom this section means a lot: the author of any work and the people
and organizations thanked. Unlike at the award ceremony, however, here
the uninterested party can simply skip these few pages, and start reading the
“real thing.” Those who are unable to survive a few pages of grateful praise
are thus pardoned if they choose to do so. Yet, one does not write an
acknowledgement section for himself or herself, nor simply for those who
helped, but rather to show the rest of the world the immense amount of
support, patience and assistance that was necessary for the project; to tell
that even if his or her name is on the cover, it would be a bit more fair if a
whole list of names stood there. Cover pages being limited in size, however,
this is, unfortunately, not possible. This is why one writes an
acknowledgement, and this is why I ask the reader to be patient, and read
this section, as well.
The person who deserves mention above and before all others is my
PhD supervisor, prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., MA. That this book,
and the PhD dissertation that served as its first version, would have never
been written without her assistance goes without saying. She devoted
i
ZÉNÓ VERNYIK
countless hours of her precious time, often weekends and nights, to read
my thoughts, answered all my questions, and was available for discussions
even at very short notice, if it was necessary. Her meticulous readings of my
papers went beyond general guidance and often included even such aspects
of my papers as language and style. Yet, her help as a supervisor is by far
not the only reason she deserves my warmest gratitude. She helped me in
numerous and decisive ways in my professional life, and she even helped
me get through difficult and turbulent times. I would most certainly not be
where I am now without her. Beyond being a supervisor, she is also a role
model and a friend. Someone who has never given up hope in me, however
much it looked like I would not make it.
It is also hard to properly express how great a share my colleagues at
the English Department of the Technical University of Liberec have in this
thesis, primarily my superiors PhDr. Marcela Malá, MA, PhD and PaedDr.
Zuzana Šaffková, CSc., MA. Within the limits of the possibilities of a small
and understaffed department, they have done all they could to provide me
with the most ideal conditions for writing and research. Beyond this, they
created a really unique and friendly working environment where the
workers are not simply colleagues, but friends and possibly even more than
that.
Writing this book would have been very different, if at all possible,
without the two generous grants that allowed me to spend a month in the
United States of America, and consult the manuscripts and notes of E. E.
Cummings, held at the Houghton Library of Harvard University. While the
very fact that these grants made it possible for me to gain access to
secondary evidence supporting my thesis and to have a deeper insight into
the creation of the analyzed poems in itself would have made their
contribution priceless, the European Society for the Study of English (with
their Type A Travel Bursary) and the Technical University of Liberec (with
their grant number IGS FP 90/2009) helped me in other, less obvious
ways, as well. The very thought that two institutions independent of each
other deemed my research worthy of their support reinforced me in the
feasibility and worth of the venture, and also provided a welcome boost of
self-esteem at a time when I had more doubts than certainties. Likewise,
spending a month in one of the world’s foremost centers of learning,
Cambridge, and probably the most educated of all towns in the United
States, Boston, broadened my horizons in more ways than one.
It is at this point I have to mention the kind, helpful and professional
staff of the Houghton and Widener Libraries. They were always there when
I needed something, with a friendly and reassuring smile, and always made
sure that I got what I needed, in a fast and simple manner, even though my
requests were not always the easiest or most commonplace. In fact, they
even managed to hide the inevitable fear a coughing and sneezing foreign