Erotic reckonings
Subtitle: mastery and apprenticeship in the work of poets and lovers
By: Thomas Simmons.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: American poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Apprentices -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Women poets, American -- Relations with men.; Poets, American -- 20th century -- Relations with women.; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.); Erotic poetry -- Authorship.
Description: Erotic Reckonings explores the problem of tradition and authority in the lives and work of three pairs of twentieth-century American poets - Ezra Pound and H.D., Yvor Winters and Janet Lewis, and Louise Bogan and Theodore Roethke.

Drawing on classical and feminist psychoanalytic theory, Thomas Simmons argues that mentor-apprentice relationships are inescapably erotic, though not necessarily sexual. Pound and Winters manifest profound conflicts between allegiance to a tradition of knowledge and allegiance to apprentices; both tend to master the apprentice, to bind her to a body of knowledge.

In contrast, Bogan and Roethke display a different approach: wary of the value of a tradition of knowledge, Bogan insists that Roethke represent himself as a person of authority. She plays for him a role of sustained reciprocity, rather than of domination.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.