The Europe Trope: Constructions of Europe in American Poetry

How have American poets portrayed Europe in poetry from different times, especially from the 1900s, when travel became a staple in the lives and works of many poets?

With the recent debates as to the stakes, shape and concerns of Europe, a term whose meaning has always been contested, it is high time to consider the cultural responses to and uses of Europe as a figure of thought, geographical space, and intellectual platform.

My research focuses on textual renditions of Europe and how the encounter with Europe is described and transformed into art. The study investigates how Europe, its topography, places and monuments are constructed in American poetry by focusing on specific, recurring approaches in the portrayal of Europe as poetic material. These include references to cartography and mapping; a preoccupation with place and the importance of the body, not least eyesight, for the experience and creation of place; uncertainty about the role of the poet when it comes to navigating between the poles of tourist and poet, especially in relation to the oscillation between eyesight, sight and vision; historicity and nostalgia as a prerequisite for Europe; counterhegemonic questionings of America as a copy to Europe’s status as predecessor, particularly through place-name doubles and the exploration of relational geographies; and the reconfiguration of the Euro-American relationship in light of globalization and new literary terms such as unoriginality.