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 which 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.