LITERARY CRITICISM-II

UNIT-1

Tradition and the Individual Talent

Introduction

T. S. Eliot, a poet and literary critic, wrote an critical work titled Tradition and the
Individual Talent in 1919. The Sacred Wood (1920), Eliot's debut book of criticism, first
published the essay in The Egoist (1919). The essay can also be found in "Selected Prose"
and "Selected Essays" by T.S. Eliot. Eliot made contributions to the realm of literary
criticism even though his poetry is what is most commonly associated with him. One of
Eliot's more well-known writings as a critic is Tradition and the Individual Talent. It
develops Eliot's influential theory of the poet's relationship to earlier literary traditions. This
essay is divided into three parts: first the concept of "Tradition," then the Theory of
Impersonal Poetry, and finally the conclusion.

Tradition as a concept

Eliot discusses his definition of tradition, the poet, and poetry in connection to it. He
wants to change how, in his opinion, "in English writing we seldom speak of tradition,
though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence." Eliot claims that despite the
English tradition's broad support for the idea that art advances via change and a break from
convention, literary advancements are only acknowledged when they follow the tradition.

The word "tradition" has a unique and profound meaning for Eliot. It symbolizes a
"simultaneous order," by which Eliot meant both a sense of present temporality and a
historical timelessness that fuses the past and present. A poet must convey "the whole of
European literature from Homer," while also representing their current context.

Eliot contends that this "historical sense" entails not just a likeness to classic works
but also a knowledge and appreciation of how they relate to his poetry.

Eliot explains how he views literary tradition. He contends that excellent poetry is
frequently distinguished by how closely it engages with earlier poetry. According to him,
being "traditional" does not imply a lack of innovation but rather a knowledge of the "whole
of European literature." Though originality and inventiveness are crucial, highly skilled poets
must also be aware of the connections between their works and the past and the present. In
essence, Eliot contends that poetry does not exist in a vacuum and that a poem's meaning is
never determined exclusively by the substance of the poem. Instead, all work is in dialogue
with itself, with each new generation adding to and changing how the canon of literature is
viewed as a whole. As a result, tradition is a dynamic construct that accomplished poets must
submit to, which leads to "continual self sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality."

Impersonal Poetry

Department of English (PG)

Eliot elaborates on his view that poetry writing is a depersonalizing act. He contends
that the mature poet writes not because he has "more to say" but rather because his skill has
allowed him to more precisely express emotion. Using a chemistry example, he describes
how platinum functions as a catalyst to produce sulfurous acid in the presence of oxygen and
sulfur dioxide while remaining unaltered in the process. In this way, the poet is like platinum:
through the making of art, new work is produced, but the poet remains the same.

Based on his idea of the poet as an impersonal medium, Eliot claims that great art is
an act of aesthetic distillation rather than the expression of the poet's innermost feelings. The
poet must instead compile common "feelings, phrases, and images" and combine them to
create a "new compound," as opposed to expressing novel or especially potent emotions. The
rigors of the "artistic process" that the poet puts them through, rather than the intensity of its
constituent parts, are what give this new compound its greatness. The final outcome should
go beyond the more intimate emotional and sensual experiences. The poem achieves a
broader aesthetic sensibility as a result, one that is independent yet engages in dialogue with
works from the past, present, and future.

Conclusion

A succinct conclusion that promotes turning the attention of critics away from poets
and toward the poems themselves. The author of the poem reiterates his claim that "the
emotion of art is impersonal." According to him, the purpose of poetry is not to express an
author's "sincere emotion," but rather to serve as a conduit for the ideas, sentiments, and
feelings of the "mind of Europe" as it is currently existing.

Department of English (PG)