Sillages Critiques

Robert Duncan, Kabbalah, and “The Dominion of the Poetic Mind”

Sillages Critiques January 30, 2025 Norman Finkelstein

What leads poets into mystical, hermetic and occult studies? How do these traditions shape their poetic practice, and conversely, how do their poems deepen our understanding of the enduring power of these bodies of thought, belief, and ritual? In response to these questions, this paper focuses on Robert Duncan’s study of Kabbalah, especially Kabbalistic language mysticism, which he reads as...