This blog is a response to a task assigned by Dilip Barad sir, Department of English (MKBU). This blog is about the T.S. Eliot's essay 'Tradition and Individual Talent'. Click here for more details.
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"Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919) is an essay written by poet and literary critic T. S. Eliot. The essay was first published in The Egoist (1919) and later in Eliot's first book of criticism, The Sacred Wood (1920). The essay is also available in Eliot's "Selected Prose" and "Selected Essays".
Question 1:
How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it? What do you understand by Historical Sense?
(Use these quotes to explain your understanding.) "The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past but of its presence." 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.
Answer:
T.S. Eliot has given a new definition of the word 'Tradition'. when we look at the word 'tradition' it reflects a negative tone. When we comment something that is tradition people we consider it as a bad or old beliefs or old way of looking, but Eliot says that though we use the word in negative context most but still we preserve our traditional values.
In this essay he says that having a tradition means a type of historical sense, looking back from the writings of Homer and other Greek writers to our contemporary world. He says that one should not follow anything blindly but one should know the history and major writings as a inspiration. He adds that any writer or poet can contribute a very little amount his writings to the huge pile of best works of all time. According to him poet should forget his individuality for the art sake.
By saying that "not only of the pastness of the past but of its presence" he implies that past is not a mere past but it has its significance to cotemporary world too, when one look at the past one should look at it with the context to the present. One should develop a perception which can look at the past with its significance in the present. Eliot argues that whatever any writer writes, it is related to historical or contemporary sense only it can' be out of that. He says that whatever literature is produced can be evaluate with comparative study of the traditional literature or any major writer of the past.
In the essay he also talks about the "historical sense" which is temporal and timeless. Through this he tries to give the quality of the historical sense, he says there are two major time that exist one present and second is when any historical event occurred, when we read any history we should look at its significance today's world by that historical sense exists in the past as well as in the present. For that he gives an example of WW1 and its effects on the people of Europe, so when one read the literature or history one should study the whole history and its effect on the European society.
Question 2 :
What is the relationship between “tradition” and "individual talent,” according to the poet T. S. Eliot?
Explain: "Some can absorb knowledge; the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum".
Explain: "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry."
Answer :
According to T.S Eliot, tradition has more significance than individual talent. For that he seems against the romantics like Wordsworth and Coleridge. He says that any writer must study history with great efforts. One should know all the major literary writer from "Homer" to the contemporaries of the present age. Then one writer would be able to produce any literary work.
He argues that individual has a very less significance in front of the literary works that are produced by successful writers, he says that, to create any work of art, artist must loose his personal identity. Any writer can only contribute few drops to the ocean of the literature. By tradition he means that the history and world literature, one must acquire that knowledge first then one can produce any work of art.
By saying that "Some can absorb knowledge...." he argues that the scholarly or gifted people can absorb the knowledge but a slow leaner must work hard to learn the history or literary work. He gives example of Shakespeare that although he was not a scholar nor he was well educated, he produced quality of literature. Eliot say that Shakespeare has observed his own age and that is the reason behind his success. But every individual is not that talented who can observe the surrounding, so one must work hard to study the literature and historical sense.
"Honest criticism and sensitive...." By saying that Eliot gives importance to the work of art not the artist. He argues that the traditional writers have already contributed so many autistic works to the literature so any new write can contribute very less amount of work to it. He gives a new way to looking into the literature that any work of art should be evaluated alone without any information about the author. When any poet writes his poem he should forget about his individual entity. And any poem should be evaluated without any biasness about the poet.
Question 3 :
How would you like to explain Eliot's theory of depersonalization? You can explain this with the help of a chemical reaction in the presence of a catalyst agent, platinum.
Explain: "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."
Answer:
T.S. Eliot has given more importance to the poem than the poet, who has written it. While any artist produce create any new art he/she must forget about himself, then he can produce qualitative literature. For that he gives an example of the equation of sulfuric acid. When the sulfuric acid is made there is a catalyst named platinum that does not seen in the sulfuric acid. Same thing he compare with the artistic mind. When any literary writer produce the work one must be unbothered by the feelings and emotions. Like platinum becomes poet's mind should be unaffected from his creation.
"Poetry is not a turning..." By saying this Eliot tries to explain that poetry is not your first emotions that arises but when poet analyses those emotions and look deep into that and detatch himself from that emotions, then one can write poetry in a real sense. He says that this understanding of emotions that is escaping from what real person is and then one can express himself wholly.
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