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 individual talents as
being seemingly impossible.
Eliot does not limit 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 can’t 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.
SOURCE
THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS FROM THIS LIBRARY
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.