"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."
- T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)
"Tradition and the Individual Talent"
Tradition and the Individual Talent’ was first published in 1919 in the literary magazine The Egoist. It was published in two parts, in the September and December issues. The essay was written by a young American poet named T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), who had been living in London for the last few years, and who had published his first volume of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations, in 1917. The essay was first published in The Egoist and later in Eliot’s first book of criticism, “The Sacred Wood”. The essay is also available in Eliot’s “Selected Prose” and “Selected Essays”.
While Eliot is most often known for his poetry, he also contributed to the field of literary criticism. In this dual role, he acted as poet-critic, comparable to Sir Philip Sidney and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” is one of the more well known works that Eliot produced in his critic capacity. It formulates Eliot’s influential conception of the relationship between the poet and the literary tradition which precedes them.
The essay may be regarded as an unofficial manifesto of Eliot’s critical creed, for it contains all those critical principles from which his criticism has been derived ever since. The seeds which have been sown here come to fruition in his subsequent essays. It is a declaration of Eliot’s critical creed, and these principles are the basis of all his subsequent criticism.
A partial or complete break with the literary past is a danger. An awareness of what has gone before is necessary to know what is there to be done in the present or future. A balance between the control of tradition and the freedom of an individual is essential to art.
Eliot said elsewhere that by losing tradition we lose our held on the present. Hence, a writer should be aware of the importance of tradition.
Tradition and individual talent by T.S Eliot summary can The essay consists of three parts.
• Concept of tradition
• Theory of impersonality
• Conclusion
Tradition and individual talent by T.S Eliot summary goes ahead in this way the essay involves the discussion about the tradition of creative and poetic work. He contains all the principles regarding the tradition and the poetic work of the artist.
1, How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it?
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.
2, What do you understand by Historical Sense? (Use these quotes to explain your understanding)
"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.
3, 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 minarates. 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.
"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.( Nobel Prize winner!!!!!!) 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.
Conclusion
Eliot concludes the essay by making his judgment about the process of poetic creation. He lays due to stress to the impersonality of the poet. He must surrender himself to the work created by him. He can gain the artistic touch only when he will surrender himself to the literary work. he must consider the individual part of his work as the best one. The impersonality by an artist is only achieved when he resigns himself to his work only. He does not consider his own emotions and ideas. Now, Tradition and individual talent essay by T.S Eliot summary is ended up here with this hope that we have done our work according to readers hopes.
No comments:
Post a Comment