T.S. Eliot was an American-born British poet, playwright, literary critic and editor. He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and later studied in Paris before moving to London permanently in 1925. Some of his most influential works include The Waste Land published in 1922, which had a significant impact on modernist poetry. He was also known for his plays and criticism and worked as an editor for the literary magazine The Criterion. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing his outstanding contribution to literature.
T.S. Eliot was an American-born British poet, playwright, literary critic and editor. He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and later studied in Paris before moving to London permanently in 1925. Some of his most influential works include The Waste Land published in 1922, which had a significant impact on modernist poetry. He was also known for his plays and criticism and worked as an editor for the literary magazine The Criterion. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing his outstanding contribution to literature.
T.S. Eliot was an American-born British poet, playwright, literary critic and editor. He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and later studied in Paris before moving to London permanently in 1925. Some of his most influential works include The Waste Land published in 1922, which had a significant impact on modernist poetry. He was also known for his plays and criticism and worked as an editor for the literary magazine The Criterion. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing his outstanding contribution to literature.
T.S. Eliot was an American-born British poet, playwright, literary critic and editor. He was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri and later studied in Paris before moving to London permanently in 1925. Some of his most influential works include The Waste Land published in 1922, which had a significant impact on modernist poetry. He was also known for his plays and criticism and worked as an editor for the literary magazine The Criterion. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognizing his outstanding contribution to literature.
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 14
Thomas Stearns Eliot
(1888-1965) Thomas Stearns Eliot.
T. S. Eliot
1. Life
1888: he was born in St. Louis,
Missouri.
1910: he studied in Paris at the
Sorbonne.
1915: he married the British ballet
dancer Vivienne Haigh-Wood.
1917: he established himself as an
important avant-garde poet. Thomas Stearns Eliot.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
1. Life
1922: he edited The Criterion, an
intellectual magazine. His professions included being a poet, a critic and an editor.
1925: he became director for the
publishers Faber & Faber.
1927: he acquired British
citizenship and converted to Anglicanism. Thomas Stearns Eliot.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
1. Life
1930: for the next thirty years he
was considered the most dominant figure in poetry and literary criticism in the Englishspeaking world.
1948: he received the Nobel Prize
for literature.
1965: he died in London.
Thomas Stearns Eliot.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
2. Works Before the conversion 1917: Prufrock and other Observations. 1922: The Waste Land. It is said to be the single most influential poetic work of the twentieth century. 1925: The Hollow Men. Cover for the first edition of Prufrock and other Observations Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
2. Works After the conversion 1927: Ariel Poems. 1930: Ash-Wednesday. 1935-1942: Four Quartets. 1935: Murder in the Cathedral. 1939: Family Reunion.
A contemporary edition of Murder in the Cathedral
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
3. T. S. Eliots world and the 19th-century world
Modern/T. S. Eliots world
19th-century world
Chaotic
Ordered
Futile
Meaningful
Pessimistic
Optimistic
Unstable
Stable
Loss of faith
Faith
Collapse of moral values
Morality/Values
Confused sense of identity
Clear sense of identity
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
4. The Waste Land: content
It is an autobiography written in a moment of crisis in the life of the poet. It consists of five sections; it reflects the fragmented experience of the 20thcentury sensibility of the great modern cities of the West. A contemporary edition of The Waste Land.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
4. The Waste Land: content
It is an anthology of indeterminate states of the mind, hallucinations, impressions, personalities blended and superimposed beyond the boundaries of time and place. The speaking voice is related to various personalities: Tiresias, a knight from the Grail legend, the Fisher King. Only Connect ... New Directions
A contemporary edition of The Waste Land.
T. S. Eliot
5. The Waste Land: themes
The disillusionment and disgust of the period after World War I.
Contrast between past fertility and present sterility.
The mythical past linked to a new concept of History repetition of
the same events.
Spring Symbols: different from Chaucer absence of rebirth.
April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. (I section)
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
6. The Waste Land: style
Association of ideas past and
present are simultaneous.
Mythical method to give
significance to present futility.
Subjective experiences made
universal.
Use of Juxtaposition. First draft of The Waste Land, third section.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
6. The Waste Land: style
Quotations from different languages
and literary works.
Fragmentation.
Technique of implication: the active
participation of the reader is required.
Objective correlative.
Repetition of words, images and
phrases. Only Connect ... New Directions
First draft of The Waste Land, third section.
T. S. Eliot
7. The objective correlative: T. S.
Eliot and Montale For Eliot, the objective correlative is a pattern of objects, events, actions, or a situation that can serve effectively to awaken in the reader an emotional response without being a direct statement of that subjective emotion.
Only Connect ... New Directions
T. S. Eliot
7. The objective correlative: T. S. Eliot and Montale
What The Thunder said
Meriggiare pallido e assorto
(Ossi di Seppia)
Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road The road winding above among the mountains Which are mountains of rock without water.
Meriggiare pallido e assorto
presso un rovente muro dorto, ascoltare tra i pruni e gli sterpi schiocchi di merli, frusci di serpi.
Both Eliot and Montale depict a desolate landscape.
They both refer to a waste land of the spirit. This landscape is cosmopolitan in Eliot. It is a domestic landscape in Montale. Only Connect ... New Directions
