Hello friends,here I am writing this blog on concept of 'Tradition and Individual Talent' by T.S. Eliot.
T.S. Eliot
• Born : 1888
• Died : 1965
• Occupation: Poetessayist,playwright,
publisher,critic
• Literary movement : Modernism
• Notable works :"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", "The Waste Land","Four Quartets", "Murder in the Cathedral"
• Notable awards : Nobel Prize in Literature, Order of Merit
∆ How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it?
→ Yes, I am agree with T.S. Eliot's concept of Tradition. The concept of tradition according to Eliot is the sense of continuity from the past. It is a continuity where a writer or a poet should write in tradition and it is readily unacceptable to the Whites as it is like a 'censure'. According to Eliot, a poet has to write in “tradition” and there exist the elements of past in the work of poet’s art when it is examined or explored from a critical lens rather than a creative force. According to Eliot , if a poet or a writer imbues the element of the past, there is an imitation of the past but he justifies that the imitation is “not the slavish imitation” of the past or the existed work of art before. He argues that the strict blinding of imitation of the past is not tradition and hence “Novelty is better than repetition”. He tries to suggest that a poet do not slavishly imitate the past but there is something new which is born out of that imitation. Hence, there will be a new novelty in the piece of work of art which he implies the “individual talent”. He says that a passive imitation of the past is to be discouraged and ignored.
Eliot suggest that a poet can obtain a “tradition” by understanding the past and he calls it as a “historical sense” which is not merely an imitation of the past but of its presence in the present. It not involves the “pastness of the past but of its presence” and the literary circles of the whole European literature produced from “Homer” to the present and the poet creates his own new work in the present with not just a mere imitation of the past but by understanding the past to obtain the “tradition”.
He also highlights that 'tradition' is not easily obtained and “inherited” but requires a “hard labour” and effort. There has to be the development of the “historical sense” by a poet to write in “tradition” and there is a recognition of the past and the present poet who creates a new work of art so that there is a continuity of literary tradition because every poet writes in a tradition. The poet starts to write in “tradition” when he has obtained the “historical sense” and it is possible for the poet to obtain when he has understood the past and is guided by the past in the present where he adds a new piece of work.
∆ What do you understand by Historical Sense?
→ The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence. Eliot writes about "historical sense" in "Tradition and the Individual Talent." He writes that the historical sense "involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence" and it is "a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional."
In this essay, Eliot also describes like the chemical reaction that Eliot uses as an analogy of the poet's depersonalized mind, each element in this historical tradition of poetry affects every other element. The past informs the present poetry. And if the present poetry was created with this historical sense, then the present poetry will also inform the past.
∆ What is the relationship between “tradition” and “the individual talent,” according to the poet T. S. Eliot?
→ According to Eliot,“tradition” is not easily obtained and “inherited” but requires “hard labour” and effort. There has to be the development of the “historical sense” by a poet to write in “tradition” and there is a recognition of the past and the present poet who creates a new work of art so that there is a continuity of literary tradition because every poet writes in a tradition. The poet starts to write in “tradition” when he has obtained the “historical sense” and it is possible for the poet to obtain when he has understood the past and is guided by the past in the present where he adds a new piece of work.
Eliot further goes on to say that “tradition” is a “dynamic one”. He suggests that the past directs the present and the present alters the past to create a new work of art which is the “individual talent”. Hence , the knowledge of the past and the creation of a new art becomes the “Tradition and the Individual Talent”. He adds that the poet takes a “tradition” or the elements from the past in his work of art but there is also a change or alteration in the present that creates something new and hence it is “dynamic one”.
∆ Explain: "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry".
→ His theory of depersonalization stats with honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry. 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.
∆ How would you like to explain Eliot's theory of ddepersonalization? You can explain with the help of chemical reaction in presence of catalyst agent, Platinum.
→ Eliot brings the analogy of chemical reaction to explain the process of depersonalization. In this respect he has drawn a scientific analogy. He tells that a poet should serve the sold of platinum which makes sulfuric acid. He says, "When the two gases, previously mentioned (oxygen and Sulphur dioxide) are mixed in the presence of a filament of Platinum. They form Sulphurous acid. The combination takes place only he the Platinum is present; nevertheless, the newly formed acid contains no trace of Platinum, and the Platinum itself is apparently unaffected has remained inert, neutral, and unchanged.
Word Count : 1016
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