Galway Kinnell is a recent favorite of mine. When I saw that Professor Trott from Emerson College was presenting at the Beauty and Belief Conference regarding Kinnell, I was thrilled. “Images of Beauty and Transcendence in Galway Kinnell’s Body Rags” by Professor Trott looked at the theme of beauty throughout Body Rags, one of Kinnell's seminal works.
Trott focused on the clash between traditional ideas of beauty and the developing 20th century. As Trott spoke, I began to see clear connections to the Romantics. Kinnell struggled to define beauty, and I think that struggle resonates with most of us. It's difficult to prioritize what matters, to sift through the distractions to find something that inspires. The gospel can give us clarification, I believe, but conscious choices of where to put our energies has such influence on those we encounter. I can't wait to reread Galways Kinnell's work with a difference framework.
I'm very uncultured and I've never heard of Galway Kinnell, but he sounds like someone to add to the "to read" list. I always enjoy listening to someone's definition of beauty because the definition is always changing, and one person can't really capture it fully.
ReplyDeleteI find it pretty great that we have a writer that can be thought of as romantic, when often in the current literary world, anything except pretty much realism is considered a little bit too sentimental, etc., that type of attitude. I appreciate that because I don't think literature should be so polarized.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to define beauty, especially when we do lean towards realism as a culture. There's so much beauty in small, simple moments of life (like in Kinnel's poem, "After Making Love, We Hear Footsteps").
ReplyDeleteI feel so close to you right now, Erin. YES! Kinnell finds nuance in the actions of living a normal life beautiful. I hate that sometimes I have to read a work by someone like him in order to remember to appreciate small things.
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