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Critically examine T.S. Eliot's essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". How does Eliot's concept of tradition influence his poetic theory and practice?
T.S Eliot in his essay "Tradition and Individual Talent", explains how tradition is not static, but is dynamic. Every new work, engages with the vast tradition of literary works written before and hence, alters it. Eliot puts emphasis on historical consciousness of poets, which means that a buddingRead more
T.S Eliot in his essay “Tradition and Individual Talent”, explains how tradition is not static, but is dynamic. Every new work, engages with the vast tradition of literary works written before and hence, alters it. Eliot puts emphasis on historical consciousness of poets, which means that a budding poet must interact and be aware of the rich literary tradition of his past, so write something new and interesting. According to him, individual talent cannot exist on its own. It necessarily draws from tradition and hence changes it by entering the literary canon. In this essay, he also gave the concept of impersonal theory of poetry, which essentially means that a poet’s personal emotions and passions should be distanced while writing a work of art. There must be a continuous surrender of the “personal self” to write better poetry.
See lessHe employed the same theory in his practice of poetry as well. If one examines his classic poem “The Wasteland”, they are bound to find fragments of various literary works and tradition. For instance, it has references from Shakespeare, ancient Greek literary texts as well as Indian scriptures like Upanishads. It has the words, “Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.,” which are directly taken from the Upanishads.
Protaryal of female characters in classic literature
Literature and literary trends have always been influenced by the societal conditions of the time. A literary text is not just a "self-contained system" as formalists would argue. Rather it holds a mirror to the society, culture, politics and ideologies of the time that it was written as, as contempRead more
Literature and literary trends have always been influenced by the societal conditions of the time. A literary text is not just a “self-contained system” as formalists would argue. Rather it holds a mirror to the society, culture, politics and ideologies of the time that it was written as, as contemporary theorist, Terry Eagleton would put forth in his essay, “Introduction: What is Literature?”. Similarly, the treatment of women in classic literature, is obviously a commentary on how women were treated during that time.
To instantiate, one can think of the character of Clarissa, from Alexander Pope’s classic mock-epic The Rape of the Lock. She talks about female virtue and moral didacticism in her speech. Given that the book was written in the neo-classical age, where a typically patriarchal society is at play, Clarissa seems to uphold all the values of the society. One can argue that perhaps she is the embodiment of everything that neo-classical society wanted women to be: demure, domestic and bound by their marietal status.
Other examples of such characters can be, Jane Bennet, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, who truly holds the moral virtues of the Regency era, where a women’s dignity was measured by their ability to secure a husband; or Nora Helmer from Henrik Ibsen’s modern drama “Dolls House”, who is typically shows an enlightened women rejecting her husband for her ill-treatment.
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