Reactionary Multilingualism: Ezra Pound’s “Addendum for C”

Abstract

Abstract This article suggests a solution to the paradox that Ezra Pound both embraced literary multilingualism and endorsed ethnic segregation. The evident multilingualism of Pound’s poetry might tempt one into imagining that he was celebrating multilingualism as a societal fact. Focusing on Pound’s multilingual canto fragment “Addendum for C,” the article argues that this cannot possibly have been the case, and that a similar premise is too often taken for granted in contemporary studies of literary multilingualism.