WELCOME
Paper:-7 literary criticism
Name:- Sanjaykumar N
Jogadiya
Topic:- T. S. Eliot:
Tradition and Individual Talent.
Part:- M.A. Sem-2
RollNo.26
EnrollmentNo.2069108420200017.
Submitted: Smt. S.B.
Gardi Department of English M.K.Bhavnagar University.
T. S. Eliot: Tradition and Individual Talent.
Thomas Stearns Eliot
was one of the leading poets of the 20th century. He was also an essayist, publisher,
playwright, and literary and social critic. His essay is an attack on some
critical views of tradition and personal talent romanticism, especially on the
idea that poetry is primarily an expression of the poet's personality. Elliott
argues that a great poem always asserts and that the poet should develop a
sense of the past. Eliot's conception of tradition takes positively as well as
in a larger sense. He also pointed out that adherence to tradition is not the
only slavery imitation. Countries and nations try to preserve their traditions
as a legacy that is an essential part of their culture and is handed down from
generation to generation. Here one should not just follow tradition but one
must add something new or creative to it and write with its history. Tradition
is not hereditary, but it must be achieved with much labor. So we can say that
he emphasized the present with a historical and historical connotation.
Historical Sense:-
Eliot explains the concept of tradition with the use of
Historical sense.There is quote from his essay on historical sense. "The
historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past,
but of its presence". Which means that It involves perception of the
presence of the past not only its pastness. It is not only to know about
historical fact but mainly its about that in which way people were living in
the past and how that past is presented in the contemporary time. Further he
says that.This historical sense, which is a sense of the
timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal
together, is what makes a writer traditional. Which means
that with the help of historical sense a writer can create the work which has
timeless and temporal both toghther.
The Concept
of Tradition:-
T.S. Eliot is mainly
a literary tradition. Eliot thinks that the tradition of the European poet
"involves, in the first place, the historical sense, which we may call
nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue to be a poet beyond his
twenty-fifth year; and the historical sense involves a perception, not only of
the pastiness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a
man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a
feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the
whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes
a simultaneous order".1 So, for Eliot, a the writer to be significant must
be a conscious part of this 'simultaneous order'. Eliot further argues that what
is new in literature is not an attack on this order; it modifies and enriches
the existing order. -The existing monuments form an ideal order among, themselves,
which is modified by the introduction of the new(the really new) work of art
among them. existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order
to persist after the supervening of novelty, the whole existing order must be,
if ever so slightly, altered; and 80 the relations, proportions, values of each
work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity between the
old and the new. Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European,
of English literature, will not find it preposterous that the past should be
altered by the sent at much as the
present is directed by the past". Eliot says this fairly early in his
career as critic and poet. Sean Lucy says that Eliot does not change his
opinion on this issue in his whole literary career. This is indeed remarkable
because Eliot happens to modify or recant several views earlier held.
Tradition and Individual talent between
relationships:-
In the
beginning of the critical discourse, Eliot deals with the issue of comparison
between the French and the English. He makes a general reference to the French
and the British poets and critics. The conflict between the French and English
is well known. So, intentionally he refers to the French and says that the French
writers of the time are more critical and more spontaneous than the English and
the Enghsh do not have a sense of tradition. It becomes necessary for the
reader to know the rivalry and make a comparison between the two groups. Such
references suggest that the author knows them and it becomes obligatory for the
reader to know all the writers and their works. Kind of Intertextuality:
-Metatext with cataphoric reference functional Value: Through the intertextual
reference to the French and the English writers, Eliot draws a comparison
between the traditional rivals and makes it an emotional issue. He criticizes
and comments the English poets for not being very critical and spontaneous like
the French. T.S Eliot relates the concept of Tradition with Individual talent.
Eliot says that Tradition comes from hard work, it was not a thing of
inheritance. There required Individual talent of the poet or artist. He also
speaks up on Shakespeare's talent i.e. he borrows materials from past in a
different way and from that difference new Tradition was begin by breaking all
the rules. Shakespeare re-adjust himself for living in the present. He doesn't
only seek pastness of the past, but of its presence.
T S.
Elliott's Theory of Depression Depression:
T.S. Elliott's critique has a
significant uptick. He believes that poetry and poetry are two different
things. Elliott explains his theory in two stages; "The poet's
relationship with the past" and "The poem's relationship with its
author."
Speaking of the first
phase, it says that the past is never dead; It lives in the present. And if we
approach an open-minded poet, "we will often find that not only the best,
but also the most personal parts of his work may be those in which the deceased
poet, his ancestors, reveals his immortality very vigorously." Again if he
is a great poet, he changes his work on a small scale. So what's the one kind
of flowing and what's inside. But while giving, he guarantees his personality,
he has to suppress it while taking. The artist’s progress is a constant
self-sacrifice, a constant disappearance of personality. "In his view, it
is the poet's duty to leave a touch of personality in his work: and as a result
a new form will emerge from the blend of past and present.
This brings up another
aspect of his theory of frustration in which Elliott shows that the poet's
greatness lies in putting his personality in his work. The poet may be
interested in personal liking, dislike or something, but he should not put it
in his poem. .The poet of the cast should have varied experiences that are
independent and will therefore entail new combinations.
It is not necessary that
these emotions be one's own, rather than the emotions of others. Because their
mind is like a catalyst that engages them in a new form of advertising it
remains unaffected at one time. May occur on the poet's experience. "But
the more excellent the artist, the more completely different the man will be.
There may be impressions and experiences that are of serious concern to a man,
therefore, what comes up is, "Poetry is not a turning point of the spirit,
but an escape from the spirit. It is not an expression of personality, but an
escape from personality. "So not a poet but poetry is the focal point of
'honest criticism and sensitive appreciation.'
Conclusion:-
Eliot was a
versatile genius who during his long span of productive activity achieved
distinction as a poet, playwright, journalist, and critic. Eliot stands in a
long line of poet-critics beginning with johnson and including such names as
Dryden,Jonson,Coleridge and Matthew Arnold such critics know the mysteries of
their own art and so can speak with force and conviction. Thus, Eliot’s second
phase is de-personality and Impersonal is more signification in English
literary criticism and theories. The essay ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’
stops at the starting of mysticism, and it can be applied by the responsible person,
who really interest in poetry. It is a very hard thing to take an interest in
poetry. We usually read a poem with the name and fame of the poet.
Works Cited
Frank, Armin Paul.
"T. S. Eliot's Concept of Tradition and the American Background." Universitätsverlag
WINTER Gmbh (1971): 151-161.
T.S.Eliot, Selected Essaye (Faber and Faber,
London, Third enlarged edition Aptil,1951 latest reprint July,1976), p. 14
Dabhi, vipul. T. S. Eliot
: Tradition and Individual talent. Ed. Vipul Dabhi. 15 December 2017. 8
March 2020
<http://vipuldabhi49.blogspot.com/2017/12/t-s-eliot-tradition-and-individual.html>.
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