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Classic Scene by William Carlos Williams

Classic Scene by William Carlos Williams. The Ambivalence of the Image and the Question of Modernity. Classic Scene by William Carlos Williams. commanding an area of squalid shacks side by side – from one of which buff smoke streams while under a grey sky the other remains

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Classic Scene by William Carlos Williams

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  1. Classic Sceneby William Carlos Williams The Ambivalence of the Image and the Question of Modernity

  2. Classic Sceneby William Carlos Williams commanding an area of squalid shacks side by side – from one of which buff smoke streams while under a grey sky the other remains passive today - A power-house in the shape of a red brick chair 90 feet high on the seat of which sit the figures of two metal stacks – aluminum –

  3. The Title: • “Classic” conjures up traditionally pastoral associations • Poem uses “modern” references: “90 feet high,” “aluminum” • Scale is important • Problem of reading: Is this a celebration of modern progress (as in, the power-house is the new “classic”) or is it an ironic mourning for a ruined “classical” past? Classic Landscape Charles Sheeler (1931) Temporal Ambivalence: How do we value the present? How do we compare it to the past and the future?

  4. Ambivalence of the Image • Powerhouse/red brick chair… “commanding an area”: Question of power/sovereignty • Just rule? Authoritarian? The chair becomes a throne, and the shift in scale draws our attention to inequality (“squalid shacks/side by side”) as a challenge to industrial capitalism. • Two smokestacks: • One, “buff” and active, referencing the masculine, individualistic inflections of modern progress • The other passive, waiting, “under the grey sky” just like the shacks, part of the same context

  5. Temporal Ambivalence • Formal logic: “Unfolding” the image gradually over several stanzas • Is it narrative - in which case it is about cause and effect? (is this about power and inequality?) • Or is synchronic – disjoined images all taking place at once? (is this about a system operating neutrally?) • “…passive today”: Inserts the image into calendrical time, suddenly and at the last minute • Does it enter to impart a sense of urgency, historical continuity? (ominous) Destiny? Progress? (promising) • Temporality is organized differently based on how we conceive of modernity (as progress or as conflict)

  6. Final Points • Temporality is organized differently based on how we conceive of modernity (as progress or as conflict) • Conversely, our attitude towards modernity animates our interpretation of time, power, scale • Williams manages to contain all of these different conflicting discourses in the sparest of images

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