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A Menorah for Athena: Charles Reznikoff and the Jewish Dilemmas of Objectivist Poetry (Phoenix Poets
The first major Jewish poet in America and a key figure of the Objectivist movement, Charles Reznikoff was a crucial link between the generation of Pound and Williams, and the more radical modernists who followed in their wake. A Menorah for Athena, the first extended treatment of Reznikoff's work, appears at a time of renewed interest in his contribution to American poetry.
Stephen Fredman illuminates the relationship of Jewish intellectuals to modernity through a close look at Reznikoff's life and writing. He shows that when we regard the Objectivists as modern Jewish poets, we can see more clearly their distinctiveness as modernists and the reasons for their profound impact upon later poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bernstein. Fredman also argues that to understand Reznikoff's work more completely, we must see it in the context of early, nonsectarian attempts to make the study of Jewish culture a force in the construction of a more pluralistic society. According to Fredman, then, the indelible images in Reznikoff's poetry open a window onto the vexed but ultimately successful entry of Jewish immigrants and their children into the mainstream of American intellectual life.
Stephen Fredman illuminates the relationship of Jewish intellectuals to modernity through a close look at Reznikoff's life and writing. He shows that when we regard the Objectivists as modern Jewish poets, we can see more clearly their distinctiveness as modernists and the reasons for their profound impact upon later poets, such as Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bernstein. Fredman also argues that to understand Reznikoff's work more completely, we must see it in the context of early, nonsectarian attempts to make the study of Jewish culture a force in the construction of a more pluralistic society. According to Fredman, then, the indelible images in Reznikoff's poetry open a window onto the vexed but ultimately successful entry of Jewish immigrants and their children into the mainstream of American intellectual life.
203 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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March 29, 2024
A Welcome Study Of An Important American Poet
Charles Reznikoff was born at the end of the Nineteenth Century in New York City to immigrant Jewish parents. Although he studied law, his calling was as a poet. He became one of the important practitioners, beginning in about 1918, of a modernistic form of poetry known as objectivism. This school was heavily influenced by Ezra Pound. It is difficult to define, but it involves stripping poetry of romantic accretions, forced verse forms, and standardized sentiments. It has a motto of "to the things themselves" and the emotional response produced from the writing flows from exact description, precise wording, a lack of editorializing, and understatement. Reznikoff attained a small measure of recognition towards the end of his long life (he died in 1976) and in my opinion is the leading Jewish poet that has written in the United States.
Fredman's book is a welcome critical study of Reznikoff. The book explores the tension that resulted when a first generation American trying to recapture something of his Jewishness came in contact with the spirit of secularity and modernity in Twentieth Century America. This tension, for Fredman, is at the heart of Reznikoff's poetry.
Fredman expands his theme to show how the Jewish immigrants attempted to adjust to their new country by discussing the Menorah Journal. This periodical was founded by Jewish students at Harvard in 1906 and it became an important magazine publishing Reznikoff's poetry, as well as many other historical and critical articles in which the new immigrants attempted to joint the mainstream of American culture while keeping something of their Jewishness. Most of these individuals were secular and rejected the religious element of Judaism.
Fredman takes the conflict between traditional Jewish belief and modernity back still further with a discussion of Spinoza, the prototypical secular, modern Jew. He finds that Spinoza articulated a philosophy of immanentism under which God was found by studying the world, rather than through the transcendent source of religious revelation. Reznikoff, argues Fredman, was a modern heir of Spinoza and the philosophy of immanence. Many of the issues faced by modern Jews have their roots in Spinoza.
Fredman's book includes a good selection and analysis of passages from Reznikoff, emphasizing the Jewish component of his poetry. Other writers tend to emphasize the American nature of Reznikoff's writing, particularly his descriptions of New York City. I was pleased that with the work of this too little known writer, Fredman emphasized some texts that remain to be discovered and brought back into print. He offers a long discussion of Reznikoff's plays, in particular a play dealing with Uriel da Costa, an apostate Jew and a predecessor of Spinoza. Fredman, of course, ties in da Costa's project with Reznikoff's own.
This book also offers much in the discussion of intellectual and poetic life in Twentieth Century America. Although Reznikoff has never been and probably never will be a writer with broad mass appeal, his work helps illuminate the United States and the dilemmas faced by the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe as they assumed their many places in our country.
Robin Friedman
Charles Reznikoff was born at the end of the Nineteenth Century in New York City to immigrant Jewish parents. Although he studied law, his calling was as a poet. He became one of the important practitioners, beginning in about 1918, of a modernistic form of poetry known as objectivism. This school was heavily influenced by Ezra Pound. It is difficult to define, but it involves stripping poetry of romantic accretions, forced verse forms, and standardized sentiments. It has a motto of "to the things themselves" and the emotional response produced from the writing flows from exact description, precise wording, a lack of editorializing, and understatement. Reznikoff attained a small measure of recognition towards the end of his long life (he died in 1976) and in my opinion is the leading Jewish poet that has written in the United States.
Fredman's book is a welcome critical study of Reznikoff. The book explores the tension that resulted when a first generation American trying to recapture something of his Jewishness came in contact with the spirit of secularity and modernity in Twentieth Century America. This tension, for Fredman, is at the heart of Reznikoff's poetry.
Fredman expands his theme to show how the Jewish immigrants attempted to adjust to their new country by discussing the Menorah Journal. This periodical was founded by Jewish students at Harvard in 1906 and it became an important magazine publishing Reznikoff's poetry, as well as many other historical and critical articles in which the new immigrants attempted to joint the mainstream of American culture while keeping something of their Jewishness. Most of these individuals were secular and rejected the religious element of Judaism.
Fredman takes the conflict between traditional Jewish belief and modernity back still further with a discussion of Spinoza, the prototypical secular, modern Jew. He finds that Spinoza articulated a philosophy of immanentism under which God was found by studying the world, rather than through the transcendent source of religious revelation. Reznikoff, argues Fredman, was a modern heir of Spinoza and the philosophy of immanence. Many of the issues faced by modern Jews have their roots in Spinoza.
Fredman's book includes a good selection and analysis of passages from Reznikoff, emphasizing the Jewish component of his poetry. Other writers tend to emphasize the American nature of Reznikoff's writing, particularly his descriptions of New York City. I was pleased that with the work of this too little known writer, Fredman emphasized some texts that remain to be discovered and brought back into print. He offers a long discussion of Reznikoff's plays, in particular a play dealing with Uriel da Costa, an apostate Jew and a predecessor of Spinoza. Fredman, of course, ties in da Costa's project with Reznikoff's own.
This book also offers much in the discussion of intellectual and poetic life in Twentieth Century America. Although Reznikoff has never been and probably never will be a writer with broad mass appeal, his work helps illuminate the United States and the dilemmas faced by the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe as they assumed their many places in our country.
Robin Friedman
Displaying 1 of 1 review