A Poet Who Witnesses His Era As An Outsider

This thesis attempts a psycho-aesthetic study of Edwin Arlington Robinson's poetry. Its aim is to put forward and prove the idea that Robinson's success chiefly resides in the aesthetic distance that the poet maintains between the subject matter and authorial interests. Based on the aesthetic consensus that beauty is impractical and literature serves no pragmatic purposes, this study offers a possible perspective from which to appreciate and criticize Robinson: the psychical distance. Edward Bullough, English aesthetician who coins the term, suggests that in a particular aesthetic activity the subject isolate the object from any practical interests and not judge it with a personal measure. By concentrating on the pure aesthetic image of the object, the subject could attain a wanted distance.This dissertation includes five chapters. Chapter One introduces Robinson's life and works, the previous research on him and the purpose and significance of the study. Chapter Two advances the idea that Robinson's success lies in the psychical distance and investigates the literary techniques with which Robinson distances his works. Technically, Robinson achieves the psychical distance by objectifying his psychological reactions and personal intentions, by providing impractical imagery rather than concept, by employing the third person perspective and disciplined poetic forms, by showing wonderment and by being dramatic. Chapter Three discusses the literary effects attributable to the psychical distance. In distancing his authorial interests, Robinson is painful but humorous, difficult but productive of meanings, intuitive but fresh with sensory imagery. Chapter Four considers what difficulties the psychical distance may create for the appreciation and criticism of Robinson. By vindicating the interrelation between beauty and truth, between appreciation and criticism, this chapter suggests possible strategies to cope with Robinson's distance. A possible strategy in appreciating his works is by concentrating the mind on the imagery, applying the intuitive capacity and suspending the author's intention. The criticism of Robinson also faces the task of tackling the psychical distance. As a questof truth and value judgment, literary criticism tries to disclose the general behind the particular and the abstract behind the concrete. Due to the psychical distance, however, it is almost an unattainable goal to bring back the author's full meaning. As a result, plural interpretations could serve as a possible way of criticizing Robinson. Chapter Five concludes that Robinson is a distanced poet for his disinterested attitude towards his subject matter. At his best, Robinson observes and records people and events as an outsider rather than participates in or comments on the characters' experience. His strong poems do not primarily serve authorial feelings or intentions. Rather, they are controlled and checked, or distanced from Robinson's authorial subjectivity. Appreciation as well as criticism of Robinson, on account of that, is to take the psychical distance into consideration.This research of Robinson is of innovative significance. For one thing, it develops the psycho-aesthetic study on Robinson pioneered by several western critics who point out that Robinson's poetry bears an aesthetic distance. For another, it tries to appreciate and criticize Robinson by examining the aesthetic interrelation between: a) imagery and concept;b) beauty and truth;c) intuition and reason and d) internal and external factors of literature.