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Paper 7 T.S.Eliot translation and individual talent

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Name.                 :   Vyas Jeel j.
Roll No                :     15.
Paper No            :    7.  Literary theory and criticism 2( 20th century  western and Indian poetics.
Class                    :     M.A. Sem - 2
Topic                   :     T.S. Eliot Tradition and individual telent.
Enrolment No   :    2069108420190045
College               :   Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Email ID             :    jeelvyas15@gmail.com
Submitted         :    Department  of English M.K.B.University   









Introduction :

                                  Thomas Stearns Eliot, (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), "one of the twentieth century's major poets" was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary and social critic Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American passport.

                     Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), which was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".

T.S.Eliot’s “Tradition and Individual Talent” was published in 1919 in The Egoist - the Times Literary supplement. Later, the essay was published in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism in 1920/2. (Gallup). This essay is described by David Lodge as the most celebrated critical essay in the English of the 20th century. The essay is divided into three parts :
The concert of Tradition.
The theory depersonalization.
Conclude.
Not only to peace this essay is used but to criticized also this essay is used when he wrote this essay he was only 25 year old. Eliot was not the port so he do not speak about how to write poetry but he only talk about the end product poem.

 Key aspect :

    In his time poet wants to different then other, uniqueness is important. In this essay he explained that how Tradition  and individual go together. To knowing Tradition plays vital role in development of personal Talent. Ex : Umashankar joshi. Umashankar joshi is very famous author of Gujarati Literature. We found that at the time he was writing at the same time so many writer also wrote for Gujarati Literature. But though he was more famous. He accepted Tradition but with his own individual talent. Sincerity is good for Literature as well as genuine emotions is important.

Part 1  The concept of Tradition.

                             In first pat Eliot speaks about tradition, He says: “Seldom, perhaps, does the word (tradition) appear except in a phrase of censure”. It means in English writings they don’t see the word ‘tradition’ in positive way.

                        He says about Englishmen’s attitude towards French Literature. Englishmen have a habit to feel proud on themselves. That is the proud for their creativity and more for their ‘less’ criticality. In French there is a mass of critical writing. Eliot compares English with French that they (French) have habit of critical method and English have habit of ‘conclusion’. He says:
“…we only conclude (we are such unconscious people) that the French are more critical than we; and sometimes even plume ourselves a little with the fact, as if the French were less spontaneous”.

                     He believes that for write Literature there is no need to be pandit like Shakespeare if you have a knowledge  of Human nature you can wrote. Literature is not the thing which can inheriting by any one. Ex : Shakespeare. If we consider Shakespeare bad last name then we must know that we do not have any other Shakespeare. The literature he produce during that time anyone can not able to produce  after him. So we found that anyone his family cannot inherited the knowledge he has about Human nature. So, we can say that literature is the thing which cannot inherited by anyone.
              Idea of the tradition involves the historical sense. Pastness of past his it’s own effect on present. Each one is part of long chain of literature.
“ The historical sense involve a perception, not only of the pastness of past but it’s presence.”

 Ex : love. We can say that watch one is part of the Long chain. Because we found that there are so many things written on the theme of love. But though still people write  on same thing but there is always newness in explaining. If individual is relented then past adjust with the person. Wordsworth brake the rules of the classical literature and because of this we found the romantic literature. We also se that Shakespeare was also doing the same.
   
           “No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation o the dead poets and artists. You can’t value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison among the dead.”         

               Poet are tented to brake the rules. Poet are allow to  brake the rule but before braking the rules they must know the rules. He looks at literature as continuity and say that, Art never improve but material of art is never quit same.
 
Part 2 Theory of depersonalisation :

                    New criticism is important. This part begins with the sentences,
“ Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not  upon the poet but upon the poetry.”
 Like poetry but not poet and person this thing he wants to say in this part. Here he say that appreciate work rather then the person. He believes that poetry is depersonalized of poet. This idea is opposite idea then the romanticism. Because Romanticism believe that whatever there is in poem is the feeling of poet.

          According to him painful exp9 gives the batter work of literature. For Eliot poetry is as acidic as  H2so4 possess. . Poetry is painful. .IND of post is like biker. Everything is there but after creation there is nothing in it. Poetry is not explanation of personality but escape from personality. Poetry is more significant then person. Ha Laos give example 6 H2SO4.

      He say that when potassium is there then only H2SO4 has created but after that there is no platinum. Here he  compere platinum with the poet. He say that after writing poetry there is nothing in poet. 

According to Eliot the poet’s mind is like a tare or utensil in which numerous feelings, phrases & images can be stored or seized. When a poet wants them he utilizes them and unites them. It doesn’t mean that the poem created by the poet shows his personality or nature.

Eliot explains very basic thing of his point that, what is expressed by the poet is merely a medium, not a personality. He says:

“…the poet has not a ‘personality’ to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality…”

In this medium, the impressions and experiences come together in unusual and unexpected ways. And other thing is some impressions and experiences seem valuable for a person, yet they may not be important for poetry. Same way some trivial experiences & impressions can become so important for poetry. Then Eliot says about context that without context nothing can be understood. He says:

“This balance of constructed emotion is in the dramatic situation to which the speech is pertinent, but that situation alone is inadequate to it.”

          He gives example from “The Revenger’s Tragedy” (by Thomas Middleton). He puts some line from that without context to explain this point. Then he says that emotion in poetry remains very complex thing, and poet’s own personal emotion may be simple or flat. So every time poet’s own emotion cannot be taken place in poem. And if the poet is always looking for new emotion in poem, then it will be perverse. A poet has not to find new emotions but he has to use ordinary emotions. He has to deal with every known/unknown emotion. Eliot here twists ‘emotion recollected in tranquility’. He says it ‘an inexact formula’. To write poetry is a great deal. When a poet becomes personal while writing poetry, he will be considered as a ‘bad poet’. Because he becomes unconscious, where he should be conscious and he becomes conscious where he must be unconscious. When a poet escapes from his personality, then & then the great poem comes out. A poet must not show his emotion in poetry. Eliot says:

“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.

Part : 3  The Conclusion:

At the end, in this third part Eliot says that this essay stops at the starting of mysticism. And it can be applied by the responsible person, who really interested in poetry. It is very hard thing to take interest in poetry and to keep a poet aside. We usually read poem with the name and fame of the poet. We cannot separate them from each other. Eliot says:

“There are many people who appreciate the expression of sincere emotion in verse, and there is smaller number of people who can appreciate technical excellence. But very few know when there is expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet.”

          By this statement, he says that to admire a poem with the poet’s skill and his name is easiest thing. The harder is to know technical skill or art of the POEM. But the hardest thing is to find the significant emotions from the poem, which separates the poet from the poem. The reader must know that after giving birth of the work of art, the connection between that art and artist is ended. And a poet must know that to reach at the level of impersonality, he first has to scarifies himself  and has to surrender himself totally to that work.

Conclusion :

               To, conclude We can say that Tradition and individual talent both the thing is important in poets life.  Without any of this he will not able to survive in long history of literature.

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