美国文学_T.S.EliotPPT

III. Drama VI. literary critic essays

I. Biography

born in USA of a bourgeois family originally from New England, who had moved to St. Louis,
T. S. Eliot (1938) by Wyndham Lewis
Thomas Stearns Eliot
(1888-1965)

American-born English poet, playwright, and literary critic

arguably the most important English-language
poet of the 20th century

Eliot's reputation began to grow to
nearly mythic proportions
with the publication of The Waste Land in 1922
now
considered by many to be the single most
―classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion.‖

Eliot renounced his citizenship to the United States and said: ―My mind may be American but my heart is British.‖
the walls ... Oxford is very pretty, but I don't
like to be dead."

In a letter in December 1914, Eliot, aged 26, wrote, ―I am very dependent upon women.‖ Less than 4 months later, Thayer introduced Eliot to Vivienne Haigh-Wood, a Cambridge governess. They were married at Hampstead Register Office in June, 1915
Oxford University, UK



From 1898 to 1905, Eliot attended Smith Academy
where his studies included Latin, Ancient Greek,
French, and German.

After graduation, Eliot attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts for a preparatory year.

In rejecting the poetic values of the English romantics and Victorians, Eliot, along with William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound, set new poetic standards equal to those established by James Joyce and Marcel Proust in fiction.
influential poetic work of the 20th century
In 1927, Eliot

became a British citizen

He specifically identified as Anglo-Catholic, proclaiming himself
His belief:

poetry should aim at a representation of the complexities of modern civilization in language

such representation necessarily leads to difficult poetry.
this kind nature of life should be
projected, not analyzed

3. The poet should draw upon tradition:
use the past to serve the resent and future borrow from authors remote in time, alien in
interference of the poet’s personal influence.

2. Modern life is chaotic, futile, fragmentary, so
poetry should reflect this
fragmentary nature of life

He studied philosophy at Harvard from 1906 to 1909, earning his bachelor's degree after three years, instead of the usual four.

Eliot moved to Paris, where from 1910-1911, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.

He attended lectures by Henri Bergson.

Eliot was awarded a
scholarship to Merton College, Oxford in 1914

Eliot did not settle at Merton, and left after a year.

He wrote: ―I hate university towns and university people, who are the same everywhere, with pregnant wives, sprawling children, many books and hideous pictures on

Although Eliot was still legally her husband, he never visited her.

In 1957, Eliot at the age of 68 married Esmé
Valerie Fletcher, who was 32.
TS Eliot with his second wife Valerie.

In 1932, Eliot left Vivienne in England and went back to Harvard.

Upon his return, he arranged
for a formal separation from
her.

Vivienne was committed to a mental hospital in 1938, and remained there until she died.
Thomas Stearns Eliot

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1948 ―for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry‖
T.S. Eliot receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, December 1948.
language, diverse in interest
use the past to underscore what is missing from
the present
III. Techniques
Use of 1. disconnected images/symbols 2. literary allusions/references 3. highly expressive meter and rhythm of free verses 4. metaphysical whimsical images/whims 5. flexible tone
recognized his poetic genius at once assisted in the publication of his work in a number
of magazines, most notably ―The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock‖ in Poetry in 1915.
Missouri.

lived in St. Louis during the first 18 years of his life
Education

Smith Academy in Saint Louis, US Milton Academy in Mass., US

Harvard University, a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy the Sorbonne (索邦大学) in Paris, France
II. Aesthetic views

1. A poem should be an organic thing in itself.
Once it is finished, the poet will no longer have
control of it.
It should be judged, analyzed by itself without the

I. Biography

II. Poetry
1.The main features
Drawing of Eliot by Simon Fieldhouse
2. The Waste Land
3. The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock 4. Four Quartets

a major innovator in modern English poetry a leader of the modernist movement famous above all for his revolutionary poem The Waste


Land (《荒原》,1922)



The philosopher Bertrand Russell took an interest in Vivienne while the newlyweds stayed in his flat.

Some scholars have suggested that she and Russell had an affair, but the allegations were
never confirmed.

来自百度文库
worked first as a teacher

then worked as a clerk for
Lloyd’s Bank

wrote poetry in his spare time
George Orwell and T.S.Eliot

It was in London that Eliot came under the influence of Ezra Pound, who
IV. Poetry

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 阿尔弗
雷德· 普鲁弗洛克的情歌 , 1915

The Waste Land, 荒原 , 1922
The Hollow Men, 空心人 , 1925 Ash Wednesday, 圣灰星期三 , 1930 Four Quartets, 四个四重奏 , 1944