고려대학교

초록/요약

Even though Wallace Stevens says, “It is life that we are trying to get at in poetry,” and “for me life is an affair of places,” Steven’s inclination of epistemological approach toward nature leads to the realization that “we live in a place that is not our own, and much more not ourselves.” Bryson positively interprets this as the consciousness of space which completes the consciousness of place by understanding the human limitations. When Stevens shows his consciousness of place in “The Anecdote of Jar,” and “Snow Man,” which are examples to transform the “space” of wilderness into a “place” with the help of organic imagination, his consciousness of space leads him to “an awakened place-awareness,” the understanding that the inner mind of human beings including imagination is made of his own place and the place molds our being. Place-making is made possible by our identification with the surrounding environment through “violence of imagination” but not by exploitation based on ownership. By our identification with it, nature (or the surrounding environment) reveals itself, through our culture (in case of “The Anecdote of Jar”), and ourselves (in case of “Snow Man”). Organic imagination here means the force of nature and a part of our being. Stevens’ long and changing inquiries of the relationship between reality and imagination find a restful port in his consciousness of place without any sacrifice of either.