lit final- T.S. eliot
what was his first major work
"The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Eliot's refusal to fulfill traditional expectations serves several functions:
1) it contributes to the poem's picture of cultural disintegration 2) it allows eliot to exploit the symbolist or elusive powers of language, since diction rather than the narrative content must carry the burden of meaning 3) by drawing attention to itself as a technique, it exemplifies modernist self-reflexive, or self-conscious style
what two countries claimed eliot as part of their national literature
England & US
who did eliot dedicate "the wasteland" to
Ezra Pound --> with a quotation from Dante that praises the "better craftsman" --> quotations from, or allusions to, a vast range of sources punctuate this lengthy work, to which eliot added explanatory notes when it appeared in book form
where was he born & to who & life
St. Louis -to a distinguished new england family -went to harvard
"The Wasteland"
a literary-historical landmark representing the cultural crisis in Europe after the first world war
what was t.s. eliot
a poet & literary critic
"the love song of J. alfred prufrock"
displays the evocative yet confounding images, abrupt shifts in focus, and combination of human sympathy and ironic wit that would attract and puzzle readers in his later works
what did he focus on
employing highly focused, startling images and elliptical, ironic voice that has had an enormous impact on modern poetry throughout the world
what did he reject
the narrative, moralizing, frequently "noble" style of the late victorian poetry
what made eliot experience writers block
unhappy in his marriage & pressure in his job at the bank
when did eliot write most of "the wasteland"
while recovering in a sanatorium in Switzerland --> poem was immediately hailed as one of the most important poems of the modernist movement and an expression of postwar sense of social crisis
