Hello friends,
I would
like to share my understanding of an
essay “Tradition and Individual Talent” by T.S.Eliot which was a part of my
syllabus in M.A (Semester- 2).
“Tradition
and Individual talent” is an essay by T.S.Eliot, published in 1919 in “The
Egoist” – the Times Literary supplement. This essay is divided into three
parts.
First let us
see some information about the writer of this essay.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 -1965) was a British essayist,
publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the
twentieth century's major poets”. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1948.
This three
parts reflects Eliot’s idea written by him in “Preface to For Lancelot Andrews”
(1928):-
A
Classicist in Literature – Part 1
A
Royalist in Politics – Part 2
An
Anglo-Catholic in Religion – Part 3
The Concept of Tradition:-
According to
Dictionary meaning, tradition means a long established action or pattern of
behaviour.
Normally
when we say something is traditional, the word seems to be derogatory that
something is not modern. But Eliot writes about tradition in much wider sense.
He highlights the positive aspect of the tradition. Tradition is not only a
mere imitation of the past. Every writer writes for the living audience. He
connects the past; the tradition with his present time.
"The historical
sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its
presence"
I
would like to interpret “Historical Sense” in different ways:-
• First, "The historical sense involves a perception, not
only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence"; the writer should
be aware of the past and how the mistakes of the past should not repeat be in
the contemporary time. For example: - If one person slips by putting his leg on
a Banana skin; the other person watching this incident might get an idea and he
will not do the same.
• Second, “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”. Every writer writes
to reflect the “expression of self”. The mixture of timeless and temporal is
necessary to create a work.
• I think “Historical Sense” means
readjustment of the past with the present. For example: - Shakespeare was a
non-Classicist, but when Wordsworth and Coleridge brought in Romanticism he was
included in that tradition. The past was included in the present.
“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.”
According to T.S.Eliot, Individual talent is a part of
tradition. They are inseparable. A creative artist while creating his work not
only considers literature of his own time but also the classical. His efforts
are not apart of tradition but are a part of it. Hence, they go together.
Theory
of Depersonalization:-
"Honest criticism
and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the
poetry"
We should disconnect a poet from poetry to pass a fair
judgement. A poem should be judge by its words not by the history of the poet. T.S.Eliot
gives an example of a chemical process to explain his theory of
depersonalisation. To create sulphur-di-oxide platinum is used as a catalyst,
but when it is prepared we do not see any trace of platinum anywhere in the solution. Similarly,
to create poetry, poet’s mind works as a catalyst but we do not see his mind in
his poetry.
Thus a poet who suffers and the mind that creates poetry
are different.
" 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."
According to T.S.Eliot, a poet writes poetry not to
release his emotions, but he wants to escape from his emotion; he doesn’t want
to face it. He wants to escape from his personality; from its real self rather
than expressing his personality.
Finally Eliot concludes his essay by saying that,
“Very few know that
when there is expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in
the poem not in the history of the poet. The emotion of art is impersonal. And the
poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the
work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he
lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past,
unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living.”
Reference:-
- http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2014/12/t-s-eliot-tradition-and-individual.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
- Google Images
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