Ezra Pound and Vorticism: Transatlantic Vectors in Politics and Semantic Shifts in Language

Abstract

The article examines the key provisions of Ezra Pound's aesthetic conception of poet-ic language. On the one hand, this concept resonates with the general tendencies to-wards the interaction of poetic and political discourses of the early twentieth century. On the other hand, the conception indicates the role of poetic language for world cul-ture and modern politics. Analysis of Pound’s essays corpus for the period from 1912 to the 1940s provides identification of three main vectors: the vector of transatlantic policy (American Risorgimento); the vector of political and poetic performativity: (Literature is language charged with meaning), and the vector of semantic shift (Make it new). The article scrutinizes the pragmatic and sematic techniques that man-ifest Pound’s intention to update the language and increase the performativity of the statement that can have an active effect on the addressee and reality.