Luminous Traversing—Wallace Stevens and the American Sublime

Gutorow (British and American literature, U. of Opole, Poland), who is also a Polish poet, literary critic, and translator, takes significant care in examining Stevens's assumptions of a higher self, and explores a higher meaning, in which one reflects at the very moment when one questions his or her identity. The effect is that one is always unfinished, and one is always a work in process. Gutorow examines Stevens's pre-Harmonium years, the ideas of "fancy and imagination," the role of Stevens in the 1930s repression, Stevens moving towards a new humanism, and the period of moving from Transport to Summer to The Auroras of Autumn; he also examines the building, dwelling, and healing in "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven" and toward a new knowledge of reality in "The Rock." Finally, Gutorow closely examines Stevens's last poems. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jacek Gutorow is poet, literary critic and translator. He has published four critical books and six volumes of poems as well as translations of British and American poetry. His honors include the Ludwik Fryde Award (granted by the International Association of Critics) and the Polish Cultural Foundation Award. He lectures on British and American literature at the University of Opole (Poland).