Ezra Pound’s final section of the Cantos—known as Drafts and Fragments—is
difficult to interpret given that Pound, probably intentionally, did not
offer clear directions on the arrangement and order of the poems before his death.
Much of the critical discussion of these last pages has focused on their textual
history and the extent to which the poems culminate in a reflective, even confessional,
reassessment of the author’s life and political views. While the final cantos
are open to various interpretations, a close examination of Pound’s source material
suggests that his vision of paradise may have had ideological and political
dimensions and in some ways represent a working through or re-articulation of his
fascist views. Such an interpretation, however, is both supported and complicated by
Pound’s engagement with ethnographic research on Southwest China, and in particular
the writings of Joseph Rock, which reveals a sense of reflexivity and a
complex engagement with problems of representation and authenticity in ethnographic
discourse.

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