Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as an assignment given by the Department of English, MKBU. As per my understanding, I try to give responses to the questions which are mentioned here in the blog of Dilip Barad sir.
https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2014/12/t-s-eliot-tradition-and-individual.html
1)How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it?What do you understand by Historical Sense?
->Yes, I Agree with it Eliot is of the view that no poetic work can be ideal if there is no glimpse of tradition. The artist must follow the traditional path of his ancestors in order to create the best work. The significance of the poetic work lies in tradition. No one can create the best work if he remains aloof from his tradition. He cannot do anything in isolation. He considers the individuality of the work of the poet or artist if he follows the traditional path. The best part of their work is regarded which reminds the literature of the past. The literature of the past must be the essence of the artist’s work. it will be present in the bones and the soul of the artist if he will follow the path of his ancestors. He must be addicted to gain the influence of his ancestors through the poetic work, The best and the fundamental part of the work will have a history about the past of ancestors and their work.
"The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence"
The historical sense is the sense of the timeless and the temporal, as well as combination of both. This sense makes a writer traditional. One, who has the historical sense, feels the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer down to his own day. It includes the literature of one’s own country which forms one continuous literary tradition.
"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".
In this regard he says, “Tradition is not anything fixed and static. It is constantly changing and becoming different from what it is.” The function of tradition is, the work of a poet in the present is to be compared and contrasted with work of the past and judged by the standard of the past. Because the past helps us to understand the present and the present throws light on past. Thus we can shift tradition from the individual elements in a given work of art.
2)What is the relationship between “tradition” and “the individual talent,” according to the poet T. S. Eliot?
->Individual talent does not cut himself away from the tradition. Tradition for Eliot is an already an existing monument and the individual can only marginally add a bit, extend a bit. According to Eliot Individual is adding a brick in the minarets. Tradition is not dead but a living thing and every new artist extends a bit in the tradition. And individual makes his /her own place in the long history called tradition. At this time he is criticizing the Romantics because of their great deal of emphasis on individual. So Eliot was carrying a thread forward from Matthew Arnold that no individual has sense of his own, One has to compare with the best that is available. Thus Eliot explains the interdependence of the tradition and individual talent.
3) Explain:"Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquire essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British museum."
->T.S.Eliot demands wide reading from the poet as well as from his readers because he himself was the very scholar, highly intellectual and well read person. He says that everyone should be well read but what he finds is Shakespeare is an exceptional. If we study Shakespeare’s biography then we will find that there is no mention that Shakespeare went to any university. And dr. Samuel Jonson also says that it seems that Shakespeare was not knowing any other language than English. But then even his works, characters, theme has universal appeal. So what Eliot anticipated is that some body will question him that you are telling that poet should be well read but Shakespeare is not fitting into the principle what you are giving, so he says that he is an exceptional. It seems that Shakespeare has absorbed the knowledge, lived through his age, not through the systematic learning. This is how he is a individual talent. If he (Eliot)can’t do like that then Shakespeare might have become true individual what Romantics were speaking about. So what he does, he says Shakespeare is an exceptional. So he says some can absorb knowledge, And others (tardy) must sweat it.
4) Explain: "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry"
->His theory of denationalization stats with honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry. Because he surrender himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation that time possible when artist sacrifice him or herself and also extinction of his personality that time poetry becomes more valuable and it is become well.
5) How would you like to explain Eliot's theory of depersonalization? You can explain with the help of chemical reaction in presence of catalyst agent, Platinum.
->Eliot's theory of depersonalization is related with the chemical process in this process person is not present in the poem and he is not important also. Poetry is not an expression but it is an escape from emotion. In the chemical process platinum is the mind of the poet. Oxygen is emotions. And Sulphur dioxide is the feeling of man. Here without platinum the process cannot possible. And even after the chemical process there is not presence of platinum found in it. So is that the poets mind’s presence is important for the creation of the poetry, but in poetry his mind does not reflected.
6) Explain: " Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."
->Poetry is not an emotion but an escape from emotion. Emotion is not necessary for any poet. If we cannot pass from any situation still we can write better than who passed. ‘It is not expression of personality but escape from it’ means poet’s personal view are not poetry but it out of it that he feel.
7) Write two points on which one can write critique on 'T.S. Eliot as a critic.
->One can write critique on “T.S.Eliot as a critic” from the following points mentioned in his essay:
• "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry."
• “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."
For further information about T.S.Eliot and his masterpiece 'The Waste Land'(Click here)
Word Count: 1146
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