JHASS
From Admiration to Detraction: On Pound’s Shift in Evaluation of Tagore and Its Causes
TOTAL VIEWS: 151
Abstract
This paper explores the shift in Ezra Pound’s evaluation of the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and his work Gitanjali, as well as the underlying reasons for this change. Between 1912 and 1917, Ezra Pound’s attitude towards Rabindranath Tagore underwent a significant transformation, shifting from high praise to skepticism and denigration. This dramatic change was closely associated with Pound and his contemporaries’ deepening understanding of Gitanjali. Regardless of Western evaluations, the Western audience, as the primary recipients of the work, serves as a mirror reflecting their own anxieties and the arduous search for spiritual solace. Consequently, the judgments made by readers like Pound were highly subjective, revealing the complex dynamics of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural interactions. Pound’s evaluations of Tagore and Gitanjali essentially reflect the clash between the heterogeneous cultural systems of the West and the East. As an observer of the East from a Western perspective, Pound did not and could not remain faithful to the objective image of the “Other.” Despite this, Tagore showcased the unique charm of Indian culture through this work, which remains significant in promoting cultural exchange between the East and the West.
References
Huang, Y., & Li, L. (2025). India’s strategic culture and its evolution. South Asian Studies Quarterly, (1), 117-160.
Hurwitz, H. M. (1964). Ezra and Rabindranath Tagore. American Literature, (1), 63-64.
Kripalani, K. (2011). Rabindranath Tagore: A biography. Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House.
Liu, S. (2013). Nobel Prize in literature: Award speeches and acceptance speeches (Vol. 1). Guangxi: Li Jiang Publishing House.
Liu, S. (2024). Examining the concept of a “community with a shared future for mankind” through Tagore’s poetry: Taking Stray Birds and Gitanjali as examples. Youthful Literary Scholars, (15), 126-128.
Liu, Y. (2024). The translational qualities of Bing Xin’s rendition of Gitanjali—Through the lens of eco-translatology. Journal of Harbin University, (5), 92-96.
Tagore, R. (1988). Tagore on literature. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House.
Tagore, R. (2016). Selected letters of Tagore. Guangxi: Li Jiang Publishing House.
Wang, W. (2024). Rethinking Oriental nationalism: An analysis of Rabindranath Tagore’s thought of nationalism in historical contexts. Collected Papers of History Studies, (4), 114-125.
Wang, Y. (2021). Domestication and foreignization in the Chinese translation of poetry: Taking Tagore’s Gitanjali as an example. Cultural and Educational Materials, (18), 61-62.
How to cite this paper
From Admiration to Detraction: On Pound’s Shift in Evaluation of Tagore and Its Causes
How to cite this paper: Jiamiao Sun. (2025) From Admiration to Detraction: On Pound’s Shift in Evaluation of Tagore and Its Causes. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 9(6), 1110-1113.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.06.010
More Articles
- Fluidity of Post-human: Cyborg Images in Western Science Fiction Films of the Alpha Generation Period
- Normative Reconstruction and Collective Memory: Myth Reinterpretation in the Perspective of Visual Anthropology—Taking the Film Ne Zha 2 as an Example
- Estimation of the Population Size in Tanzania from 1967 to 2112 Using Logistic and Exponential Models: A Comparative Analysis
- The Execution Dilemma and Solution Path of Jointly-owned Houses by Couples: From the Perspective of Legal Application and Rights Balance
- Understanding Adolescent Social Media Use: A Computational Modeling Perspective
- Ethical Anxiety of Chinese College Literature Students Toward Artificial Intelligence Poetry Writing: A Qualitative Study Based on Questionnaires and In-depth Interviews