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T. S. EliotA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“Tradition and the Individual Talent” is regarded as one of the most influential literary essays of the 20th century. Its persuasive, confident tone invites the reader to reconsider the definitions of tradition, time, poetry, and artist. Eliot’s theories and principles reflect and informed the Modernist movement of his time while also laying the foundation for the New Criticism.
Eliot wrote this essay shortly after the end of World War I. Many writers of the time were disillusioned by the war and sought meaning in personal experience rather than social and political life. Eliot’s arguments take aim at this emphasis on the individual artist’s emotions and feelings as the center of poetry. “Tradition and the Individual Talent” suggests a new approach to criticism, giving primacy to tradition and the past. In doing so, Eliot invites readers to reconsider their assumptions about art and the nature of time. Through parallel considerations of tradition and individuality, the poet and the poem, the past and the present, and emotions and artistic process, Eliot fixes the necessity of each concept to the other without resolving the tensions between them.
Though the essay touches on theoretical ideals, it is intended to be a practical guide for poets and artists of any type.
By T. S. Eliot
Ash Wednesday
T. S. Eliot
East Coker
T. S. Eliot
Four Quartets
T. S. Eliot
Journey of the Magi
T. S. Eliot
Little Gidding
T. S. Eliot
Mr. Mistoffelees
T. S. Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
T. S. Eliot
Portrait of a Lady
T. S. Eliot
Preludes
T. S. Eliot
Rhapsody On A Windy Night
T. S. Eliot
The Cocktail Party
T. S. Eliot
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T. S. Eliot
The Song of the Jellicles
T. S. Eliot
The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot