Name: Jayti R. Thakar.
Paper No: 7. Literary Theory and Criticism
Topic of Assignment: Critique On 'Eliot as a Critic'.
Roll No: 34.
Submitted to: Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English
1) What
is Criticism?
“Criticism is the
practice of judging the merits and faults of evaluative or corrective exercise
can occur in any area of human life.
Another meaning of
criticism is the study, evaluation and film and social trends. The goal of
‘Literary Criticism’ is to understand the possible meaning of cultural
phenomena and the context in which they take shape.
2) Criticism
before Eliot and after Eliot.
3) “Eliot
as a Critic”.
Besides being a poet, playwright and
publisher, T.S.Eliot shows a disinterested endeavor of critical faculty and
intelligence in analyzing a work of art.
Eliot was acknowledging as one of the
greatest literary critics of England from the point of view of the bulk and
quality of his critical writing.
In honor to Eliot, John Hayward states
that,
“I cannot think of a critic who has
been more widely read and discussed in his own life-time; and not only in
English, but in almost every languages, except Russian”. (Encyclopedia)
For the sake of a systematic
discussion, his critical works may be grouped under the following heading:
a)
Theoretical criticism dealing with the
principles of literature,
b)
Descriptive and practical criticism
dealing with the works of individual artists/writers and evaluation of their
achievements and,
c)
Theological study.
4) About
“Tradition and Individual Talent”.
‘Tradition and
Individual Talent’ has been one of Eliot’s extraordinarily influential critical
works. It was first published in 1922 in ‘sacred wood’, and was subsequently
included in the ‘selected essay’ (1917-1932).
In this essay, Eliot has primarily
dealt with his concepts of,
a)
Historical sense and Tradition.
b)
Interdependence of the past and the
present.
c)
Impersonality in art in general and
poetry in particular.
5) What
is “Tradition”?
According to the
Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,
‘Tradition means a belief, principle or way of acting which people in a
particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time, or all of
their beliefs, etc. in a particular society or group.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes
‘Tradition’ an ‘inherited, established or customary pattern of thought, action as
behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom)’.
But, ‘tradition’ according to Eliot
means ‘principles’ that are to be followed in order to hone your skills as a
writer. But, those principles are not inherit age. They are to be studied upon
and to be understood in harmony with all the tradition. Eliot says that, “the
literary tradition is the outside authority to which an artist in the present
must owe allegiance”.
6) What
is ‘Individual talent’?
From
the point of view of T.S.Eliot, ‘Individual Talent’ simply means with “Inner
voice”. Middleton murry first used this word, “Classicism and Romanticism”. He
used this word (inner voice) for romantic poets.
According
to murry, romantics have full faith in their inner-voice.
7) Eliot’s
views on “Tradition and Individual Talent”.
In his essay of
“Tradition and Individual Talent”, he had pointed out that there is an intimate
relation between the present and the past in the world of literature.
It involves, in the first place, the
historical sense. The entire literature of Europe from Homer down to the
present day forms a single literary tradition that individual works of art have
their significance. This is so because the past is not dead, but lives on in
the present (Original text, para-3).
“No poets, no artist of any art has his
complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation
of his relation to the dead poets and artists.”
“You cannot value him alone; you must
set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.”
Past works of literature form an ideal
order is disturbed if ever so slightly, when really new work of art appears.
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 present as much as the present is directed by the past” (Original text,
para-4). In a peculiar sense he will be aware also that he must inevitably be
judged by the standards of the past (Original text, para-5).
“He must be aware that the mind of
Europe- the mind of his own country- a mind which he learns in time to be much
more important than his own private minds…” (Tradition and individual talent-
text, para-6)
In second part Eliot gives theory of
“Impersonality” he states,
“Honest criticism and sensitive
appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry” (Original text,
part: 2, Para 11).
§ Theory
of ‘Depersonalization’ :-
According to Eliot bad poet Is usually
unconscious where he ought to be conscious and conscious where he ought to be
unconscious. Both errors tend to make him ‘personal’. “Poetry is not a turning
loose of emotions, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of a
personality, but an escape from personality” (Original text, Part: 2, Para 17).
§ “Inner-
voice” : An Ironic Treatment:-
From the view point of
Eliot, for those who believe in the “Inner-Voice”, criticism is of no value at
all, because the function of criticism is to discover some common principles for
achieving perfection in art, and those who believe in the “Inner – Voice” do
not want any principles, they do not care for perfection in art.
Thus, in this essay, he treats
tradition not as legacy but as an invention of anyone who is ready to create
his or her literary pantheon, depending on his literary tastes and positions. This
means that the development of the writer will depend on his or her ability to
build such private spaces for continual negotiation and even struggle with
illustrious antecedents (previous), and strong influences.
Through this essay Eliot simply tries
to convey that,
“One must refer ‘Tradition’, but not to imitate.”
Harold
Bloom terns the state of struggle as the “Anxiety of Influence.”
8) Overview
of “The Anxiety of Influence” (an
alternative approach).
Bloom derides Eliot
for suggesting a complex, an elusive relationship between the tradition and the
individual, and goes on to develop his own theory of influence.
Through an insightful study of romantic
poets, Bloom puts forth his central vision of the relations between tradition
and individual artist.
Bloom simply means that,
“One is influenced by his former/predecessors one or the other way.”
According to Bloom, in his book’s
argument,
“Poetic history is held to be in
distinguishable from poetic influence. Since strong poets make that history by misreading
one another, so as to clear imaginative space for themselves”.
From above quote Bloom says that poetic
history is quite different from poetic influence as the strong poets who
created the history or tradition perhaps from their misreading and disproof.
So, in that case individual talent proves much better to create an artistic
work.
9) Eliot’s
faults:-
As a critic Eliot has his faults too.
10)
He changed the mindset of moderns
Though, he has faults
in his criticism, he could change the mindset of modernists.
Of all the western modernists,
T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) has been the most pervasively influential through both
his poetry and his literary criticism. He was initially influenced by the
American new Humanists such as Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer, and his early
ideas owed a great deal to their emphasis on tradition, classicism and
particularly to Ezra Pound and the imagist movement (A history of literary
criticism and theory, M.A.R.Habib, 629).
Generally, Eliot considered himself as
a “Classicist in Literature”. Because, it was he who first applied the
Aristotelian method of comparison and analysis to the elucidation of works of
literature. Although, he known as “Modern Critic” that perhaps because he
applied the method of science to the study of literature to be able to see it
as it really is. This is what he has to offer to present day. (An introduction
to literary criticism, B.Prasad, Page. No 238,239)
My
opinions:-
At the end with the limited knowledge I tried to
justify the topic. I arouse at a conclusion that I agree with T.S.Eliot at some
extent. But, with his theory of “Depersonalization” I don’t agree. It is
somehow very difficult to detach yourself from the work. You cannot be detach
or disillusion that literature you are writing or the literature you criticizing,
unconsciously there is always a sense of “you” in what you think, write or for
that matter criticized.
To evaluate my assignment Click Here.
Work Cited: -
Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
To evaluate my assignment Click Here.
Work Cited: -
Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Prasad, Brijadish. An Introduction to English Criticism. Delhi: Rashtriya Printers, 1965.
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