TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL TALENT - THOMAS STEARDS ELIOT


Thomas Stearns Eliot is a poet, critic, dramatist and editor He was born in St Louis, Missouric on  26th  Sept  1888 He was the youngest of seven children . He entered Harvard in  1906,  late, he studied philosophy and literature in France and  Germany before leaving for England  shortly after the outbreak of world  war I in  1914. he  studied Greek Philosophy at  Oxford  and despite the fact that he did not complete the work for his doctorate degree, he went on to win the noble prize for literature in 1948. He later died in 1965.
The summary of his essay  “Tradition And The Individual  Talent” 
T.S. Eliot proposes what he feels   are proper ways for  a  new artists to fully understand an  idea or  some information so that he are able  to use it himself into the literary  tradition that has come before him . T.S Eliot is mainly concerned with what he describes as the tradition of poetry.  In Eliot’s opinion, a poet is not an individual separate  from the rest of literary history. A poet cannot in a sense make original art without being conscious of the entire past of literature, and how his art relates to the past.  For Eliot, the past is still a dynamic entity that shapes the poetry should be written and interpreted.
The  essay “tradition and the individual  talent” begins with Eliot to mention something  in an indirect way to the way “tradition”  is commonly regarded in English  Literature as being somewhat  absent. Eliot feels that English literature lades  a certain formalized aspect that is  very common at a particular place in French literature.  Eliot then discusses common conceptions of talent. Eliot says that we should not value poets who are different from their immediate predecessors. In Eliot’s opinion, many of the best traits found in  a poet are things that they have learned form their poetic  ancestors, things that are not early distinguished in poetic style.    
Eliot  explained the importance of  a historical view of tradition, and expresses that this can only be obtained  through carefully and with a lot of attention to detail work. It appears  that Eliot  would prefer that poets have a firm understanding every  canonical  piece of literature ever written prior  to attempting to make poetry their own.   A poet should additionally be aware of his place in the timeline  of poetry, because this will give him room to understand that literature is  both timeless and temporal . Eliot  then begins his theory on the  idea of  an individual talents as being  seemingly impossible.
Eliot does not limited the influence of the past to poetry, rather he broadens his discussion to all  art  forms “no poet,  no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone.
Eliot  then expands upon his theory on how new art and past  works of art relate to each other in this way, art should not be judged by comparing it to the art that proceeds  it, and “certainly not judged by the cannons of dead critics. Rather  the  test is of the  new work fits into the history of art, and this is its  test of value.  It seems that a work of art must conform  to certain regulations and conventions in order to be valued as a true work of art . It appears that Eliot  is calling for an abandonment of  spontaneous originality, you cant be  original without having  a full concept of what has been done before you.
Eliot emphasized the importance of a vast knowledge  of  the literary cannon, or what he refers to as traditional, while down playing the importance of the individual.  To create works of art that are truly original or  new, an artist must have a full command of all the artists in the field that have preceded  them. The artist should also know how their work fits into the ever changing timeline of literary history.  According to Eliot “poetry is likened to a craft  in the scientific   analogy. The science  experiment  described is the combination  of two inert  gasses that created  acid  when in the presence of  platinum.  Yet  the platinum is left unaltered. The poets mind is piece of platinum it is  used to trigger a reaction, combine things in a new way with  the  end result being an entirely new creation. Eliot also adheres to his literary theory “the west land” is  a series literary allusion from previous works.
Some silence issues raised on the articles are
a.       Eliot points out the opposition between criticism and creativity
b.       He explains how tradition is a kind of organic entity in itself as if literature existed in
c.       Eliot pointed out the idea that the literature of the present can change the literature of the past
d.      He  explains how aesthetic sense is divorced both form concerns of immediate utility and  from all personal emotions
e.       Eliot talked on how poetry was rather than the poet.
f.        Eliot pointed out how his emotion are associated with experience /events in ones personal life. Etc.

ASSIGNMENT II
a.       Define classicism
b.      Who is a classical writer
a.        Classicism is a style of art and literature that is simple and elegant and is based on the styles of ancient Greece and Rome.  It is popular in Europe in the 18th century
b.       A classical writer: These are people who write widely accepted and used for a long time; traditional in style or idea. They connected with or influenced by the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.
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