T.S. Eliot

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T.S. Eliot（ 1888-1965）

A poet, dramatist, literary critic, and modernist.



The “Classical” Modernist

Life

• He was born in Missouri on September 26, 1888. He lived in St. Louis during the first

eighteen years of his life and attended Harvard University. • In 1910, he left the United States for the Sorbonne, having earned both undergraduate and

masters degrees and having contributed several poems to the Harvard Advocate. • After a year in Paris, he returned to Harvard to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, but

returned to Europe and settled in England in 1914. • The following year, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and began working in London, first

as a teacher, and later for Lloyd's Bank. • It was in London that Eliot came under the influence of his contemporary Ezra Pound,

who recognized his poetic genius at once, and assisted in the publication of his work in a number of magazines. • In 1927 he became a British citizen .

• After a notoriously unhappy first marriage, Eliot separated from his first wife in 1933,

and was remarried, to Valerie Fletcher, in 1956. • • • • • • • • • • •

In 1948 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1965 he died in London. An American expatriate

Extremely well read and educated

Married all his life to a woman who went insane

Imported mythology from all over the world into his poetry. Felt poetry must become comprehensive

Sought to revive poetry that had become dead Looked to 17th-century metaphysical poets Has close ties to Romanticism

Really wants to revive classic aesthetic

Literary Career

• • • • • • • • • • • •

First period:

1915 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock《普鲁弗洛克的情歌》 —the first masterpiece of modernism in English; 1917 Prufrock and Other Observations: First volume of poetry. Second period:

1922 The Waste Land《荒原》__Eliot’s erudite masterpiece on the theme of sterility and chaos of the contemporary world, an expression of the despair of the post-war era. 1925 The Hollow Man: the spiritual and emotional aridity of modern men.

1920 The Sacred Wood: a volume on literary criticism, a manifesto of modernist poetry. Third period: 1930 Ash Wednesday

1935-1943 Four Quartets《四个四重奏》

Literary criticism: Selected Essays 1932, The Uses of Poetry 1933, On Poetry and Poets


•

1957, etc.

1935-1958: verse plays: Murder in the Cathedral《大教堂谋杀案》Family Reunion 《合家团聚》The Cocktail Party《鸡尾酒会》

The Waste Land

433 lines, mainly free verse; It has been called “one of the most important poems of the 20th century.”

• Many quoted lines in German, French, Italian and references and allusions to English

writers as Spencer, Shakespeare, Middleton, Milton and Goldsmith with many explanatory notes;

• A landmark in English poetry, ending the Romantic period and signifying the emergence

of Modernism.

• Result of the poet’s long years of meditation and feeling.

• A picture of the spiritual ruins in Europe shortly after the end of WWI and expressed the

disillusionment of a generation of intellectuals.

• The Waste Land consists of five discontinuous segments, each composed of fragments

incorporating multiple voices and characters, literary and historical allusions, bits and pieces of contemporary life, myths and legends. • The central theme---desperation

• Although it gestured toward religious belief ,The Waste Land was not an affirmative

or religious poem; the desperate quest for regeneration in a cacophonous, desolate landscape remains unfulfilled.

Subtitles

The Burial of the Dead 死者葬礼A Game of Chess 对弈

The Fire Sermon 火诫 Death by Water 水里的死亡 What Thunder Said 雷霆的话

•

Writing Features

• • • • • • • • •

Techniques:

Stream of consciousness: Using concrete images to capture fleeting emotional experience; Symbols;

Conceits: images or comparison: far-fetched, shocking, paradoxical; Sudden and ironical contrast Major themes (pessimistic): Sordid aspects of modern city life;

The essential sickness and agony of the human soul. Style: Colloquial and everyday language

Literary position

“a classicist in art, a royalist in politics, and an Anglo-Catholic in religion.”

• One of the literary leaders and the most outstanding writers of the 20th century; • A leader of the modernist movement in English poetry • A great innovator of verse technique

• The Nobel Prize winner of 1948. The Order of Merit conferred upon him by the Crown in

1948

Awards & Recognitions

 the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.  the Order of Merit in January 1948.

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