English Language and Literature ETDs

Bert Almon

Publication Date

10-8-1971

Abstract

This study is a critical introduction to the thought and art of Gary Snyder, an American poet whose esoteric allusions to Oriental thought and American Indian lore require considerable explication. Through an examination of Snyder's basic themes I have tried to provide the background for a full understanding of his work, and at the same time I have provided critical evaluation of it. The introductory chapter contains an intellectual biography, of Snyder, an examination of his poetics, and a résumé of the available criticism and scholarship devoted to him. The second chapter examines the sensuous emphasis of his style and subject matter. The third chapter takes up the theme of social criticism and the fourth is devoted to his interest in primitive lore. In the fifth chapter I examine his use of Hindu and Buddhist mythology and thought. The conclusion looks briefly at his career from a chronological perspective and places his work in an American literary tradition of commitment to physical experience. I conclude that Snyder's best work and most important contribution to poets influenced by him stems from his commitment to the senses. His use of myth-making to convey insights through sensuous particulars is the source of his richest poetry. He extends a written literary tradition with deep roots in the American past and has learned from a similar tradition of oral poetry created by the American Indian.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ernest Warnock Tedlock Jr.

Second Committee Member

David Marcus Johnson

Third Committee Member

Gene Frumkin

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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