Wallace Stevens' Philosophical Evasions

Wallace Stevens Journal Vol. 31, No.1, pp. 27-42, Spring 2007

16 Pages Posted: 27 Jul 2011 Last revised: 10 Jul 2020

See all articles by Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

University of South Dakota Law School

Date Written: April 1, 2007

Abstract

How could thought ever benefit from being formed in poetic language rather than philosophical prose? This essay attempts to clarify a single, relatively narrow respect in which poetry can perform philosophical work that prose, as such, cannot: the evasion of philosophical dogmatism through Stevensian qualification. What Helen Vendler in an early essay calls Stevens’ “qualified assertions,” and what Marjorie Perloff calls Stevens’ “ironic modes,” are the basic techniques of Wallace Stevens' anti-dogmatic art.

Keywords: Wallace Stevens, philosophy, poetry, qualified assertion, anti-dogmatism, Helen Vendler, Marjorie Perloff, G.P. Baker, Simon Critchley, The Ultimate Poem Is Abstract

Suggested Citation

Brazeal, Gregory, Wallace Stevens' Philosophical Evasions (April 1, 2007). Wallace Stevens Journal Vol. 31, No.1, pp. 27-42, Spring 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1895883

Gregory Brazeal (Contact Author)

University of South Dakota Law School ( email )

414 E. Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
United States

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