Thomas Stearns Eliot is considered to be one of the most influential critic of the modern era. He is widely influential for his famous essay Tradition and the Individual Talent. The essay influenced the emerging theory in the literary theory known as New Criticism and hence Eliot is also sometimes referred to be as the anticipate of New Criticism theory. He has contributed critical terms such as the Impersonality theory, objective correlative, unification of sensibility and autotelic text.
Firstly as a critic Eliot is a classicist. His essay Tradition and the Individual Talent shrouds him to be a classicist where he believed that a piece of art should be sublime, complex and objective. He gave a full understanding of the idea of tradition where tradition is simply a current of literary writings but Eliot highlights that the poet cannot attain tradition unless and until he obtains a historical sense. Historical sense is simply a consciousness of the past in terms of writing consciousness of the dead poets from Homer till the present and grasping on their literary works. A poet according to Eliot has to obtain this sense of historical sense first so to obtain tradition. A poet can only refine his sense of tradition/historical sense only when he subtracts his personal feelings and emotions. Hence, he highlights the theory of Impersonality which also makes him a classicist.
According to Eliot the work of art has to be impersonal and the poet can achieved the level of impersonality only when he has refined his tradition/historical sense. The materials or historical sense/tradition that he gathered inside his mind is going to be mixed as in a chemical reaction along with the personal experiences of the poet. The mind has to act as a catalyst as in chemistry where it will increase its reaction but will not participate or undergo any process of change. He highlights that the past (materials he obtained through historical sense/tradition) will direct or guide the present poet( any modern poet) for his writing or creativity at present and the present(the modern mind’s poet) will alter or modify the past(materials from the past tradition/historical sense) and a new of work of art will be created which is the individual talent. In simple words, the Individual talent is the product of the chemical reaction between tradition/historical sense fusing with personal experiences of the poet.
Eliot as a critic believed that the work of art can project a personal emotions of the poet but he believed that it needs a mediator to be expressed. In his essay Hamlet and His Problems , Eliot coined the term objective correlative. This critical concept is actually a mediator through which a poet can correlate his personality and emotions with a set of objects or events. Eliot criticized that Shakespeare’s Hamlet has a lot of emotions in his head but are unable to be expressed because it lacked objective correlative. In critical understanding the concept emphasizes on evoking a sense of emotions in any work of poetry where a particular emotion can be expressed by correlating it with an image or object or events to portray it objectively.
Eliot criticism has always emphasized on objectivity rather than subjectivity. This essence also makes him a classicist. His impersonality theory focuses on objective art and he criticizes the Romantic poetry for its subjectivity especially Wordsworth’s theory of poetry of “recollection in tranquility”. He believes that poetry is an escape of emotions and personality rather than expressing one’s emotions and feelings. This is the idea of objectivity he emphasized and he further adds that it has to be “impersonal” since it has its own life and does not focus on the existence of the writer/poet/artist. He is actually propagating the idea of art for art’s sake where they believed that art has its own life and can exist without the presence of an artist.
However, there is also a question which arises the need for tradition and objectivity. It was the demand of the time and the society for it became complex and difficult for the poets and people to live during that age. The individual trust was broken due to the First world war and if Eliot expressed his emotions like Wordsworth then nobody will dared to believe Eliot and his writings. Hence, there was a demand for the sense of tradition and Eliot in the impersonality revolutionized the modern poetry by attacking Renaissance Humanism. He attacked the Renaissance Humanism with his impersonality theory that though human beings maybe significant in the world yet they are also equally destructible in the world because of the impact of the First World War and Impersonality theory addresses such compaction of forces of First World War.
It was Eliot who actually appreciated and glorified the 17th century poets knows as Metaphysical poets. In his essay The Metaphysical Poets, Eliot appreciates their poetry for their ability to unify both wits and emotions in a balanced form. When Neo-classicism emerged, poetry became witty and imbalanced and Romanticism became emotional and less witty. Hence, it was the metaphysical poets who balanced the wits and emotions in their poetry and he came up with the idea of unification of sensibility where the use of wits and emotions are well balanced and formed in a work of art.
Summary of Eliot To the Indians who died in South Africa
Summary of Eliot Whispers of Immortality
Critical Analysis of Eliot Hamlet and his Problems
T.S Eliot Theory of Impersonality in Hindi
Browning The Lost Leader as a Dramatic Monologue
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