Eliot’s Modernist Manifesto

This essay revisits Eliot’s seminal text “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919) which has been part of the central debates of literary discussions for almost a century. Although no longer an orthodoxy in our postmodern era, Eliot’s essay continues to influence current critical debates. The goal of this article is to rethink Eliot’s manifesto from the perspective of romantic and modernist poetics, and to reconcile the great disparity between Eliot the experimentalist avant-garde poet who advocates the aesthetics of fragmentation and the critic who pleads for the extinction of personality. This article reconsiders Eliot’s concepts of tradition and impersonality in the light of the revolution that took place in the visual arts in the first decades of the twentieth century, whose experimental language he tried to transfer to poetic practice. It also analyzes the way in which his theories present affinities with modern trends of philosophical thinking, such as historicist hermeneutics, relativism and pragmatism.Cet article propose de revisiter « Tradition and the Individual Talent » (1919), le texte critique fondateur de T.S. Eliot qui, depuis près d’un siècle, est au cœur des débats littéraires. Même si, à l’ère post-moderne, ce texte n’a plus une valeur de référence, il continue à nourrir les débats critiques. Le but de cet essai est de reconsidérer le manifeste de T.S. Eliot dans la perspective de la poétique romantique et moderniste, et de repenser la disparité entre Eliot, le poète expérimental d’avant-garde qui revendique l’esthétique de la fragmentation, et Eliot, le critique de l’impersonnel. Il s’agit donc de revenir sur les concepts de tradition et d’impersonnalité à la lumière de la révolution qui a marqué les arts visuels durant les premières décennies du XXème siècle et dont Eliot a essayé d’appliquer le langage expérimental à la pratique poétique. Ce faisant, on tentera de dégager aussi les affinités entre les théories d’Eliot et certaines approches philosophiques, telles que l’herméneutique historique, le relativisme et le pragmatisme

Metaphysical Inflexions in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath

Este article afirma que Sylvia Plath és essencialment una poetessa visionària, de factura romàntica i surrealista. La seua contribució a la poesia del segle XX, no es pot entendre en la seua verdadera dimensió si no es prenen en consideració les categories mítiques que estan en la base de la seua poètica i que determinen l'efecte catàrtic dels seus tràngols i transports visionaris. Els poemes de Plath presenten una gran afinitat amb l'horitzó del pensament magicoreligiós en el que la mort dóna pas a una regeneració. Les estructures mítiques vertebren tots els aspectes de la seua obra, la seua concepció de la naturalesa, les experiències específicament femenines com la maternitat o els ritus d'iniciació.Este artículo afirma que Sylvia Plath es esencialmente una poetisa visionaria, de factura romántica y surrealista. Su contribución a la poesía del siglo XX, no se puede entender en su verdadera dimensión si no se toman en consideración las categorías míticas que están en la base de su poética y que determinan el efecto catártico de sus trances y transportes visionarios. Los poemas de Plath presentan una gran afinidad con el horizonte del pensamiento mágico-religioso en el que la muerte da paso a una regeneración. Las estructuras míticas vertebran todos los aspectos de su obra, su concepción de la naturaleza, las experiencias específicamente femeninas como la maternidad o los ritos de iniciación.This article contends that Sylvia Plath is essentially a visionary poet with strong ties to the Romantic and Surrealist tradition. Her contribution to the development of 20th century poetry cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the mythical categories which underlie her oeuvre and which determine the cathartic effect of her visionary trances and transports. Plath’s poems are steeped in the magicoreligious horizon of archaic cultures which conceive death as a preliminary step towards a new existence. The mythic structures inform all the aspects of her work from her conception of nature, experiences that define womanhood or the many initiation rites

“Con voz inviolable”: la palabra redentora de Eliot en La tierra baldía

Este artículo analiza la desesperación y la noción de identidad en La tierra baldía a la luz del libro La enfermedad mortal (1849) de Soren Kierkegaard. Argumenta que, a pesar de la sensación de pérdida y falta de sentido de la existencia, La tierra baldía traza el viaje del ser desde la ignorancia y el sufrimiento, desde la sujeción a la temporalidad y la sed de lo sensual, a través de la noche oscura del alma hasta una perspectiva desde la cual se puede acceder al “corazón de la luz”. Se afirma que Eliot es un Dante del siglo xx que va más allá de las fronteras europeas e intenta reconciliar el cristianismo, el budismo y la filosofía vedanta con un discurso existencialista.This paper analyzes the notions of despair and selfhood in The Waste Land through the prism of Soren Kierkegaard’s Sickness unto Death (1849). It contends that despite the sense of loss and meaninglessness of existence, The Waste Land traces the journey of the self from ignorance and suffering, from being bound to temporality and sensual thirst, through “the dark night of the soul” to a vantage point from where it can see into “the heart of light.” Furthermore, it claims that Eliot is a twentieth century Dante who goes beyond European frontiers and attempts to reconcile Christianity, Buddhism and the Vedanta with an existentialist discourse

Eliot’s Modernist Manifesto

[EN]This essay revisits Eliot’s seminal text “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919) which has been part of the central debates of literary discussions for almost a century. Although no longer an orthodoxy in our postmodern era, Eliot’s essay continues to influence current critical debates. The goal of this article is to rethink Eliot’s manifesto from the perspective of romantic and modernist poetics, and to reconcile the great disparity between Eliot the experimentalist avant-garde poet who advocates the aesthetics of fragmentation and the critic who pleads for the extinction of personality. This article reconsiders Eliot’s concepts of tradition and impersonality in the light of the revolution that took place in the visual arts in the first decades of the twentieth century, whose experimental language he tried to transfer to poetic practice. It also analyzes the way in which his theories present affinities with modern trends of philosophical thinking, such as historicist hermeneutics, relativism and pragmatism

Eliot’s and Pound’s Declensions of the Past and Present: When Time Becomes Space

[EN]The aim of this paper is to analyze the way in which Pound’s and Eliot’s Modernist poetics assume the task of what Longenbach calls the “existential” historian who endeavors in Bradley’s words “to breathe the life of the present into the death of the past.” It argues that stylistically, this approach of time does away with the temporal dimension inherent in a literary text and privileges instead spatiality, which is a characteristic feature of the figurative arts. In the first instance it analyzes the modernist conception of newness and the relationship between past and present, and in the second part it argues that the required technique to reflect the conception of time as a palimpsest together with the non-mimetic aesthetics of modernist poetics transform the modern epic into primarily a spatial poem

New Readings in American Romanticism

Not