T. S. Eliot: Tradition and individual talent

individuality

-not linked to originality/difference but to TRADITION

-no individuality without tradition

tradition

“historical sense'“

two dierctions:

• sense of timeless

• sense of temporal

historical sense

-someone to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with the whole lot of literature before them

-looking at history from contemporary standpoint

-history: continuously changingm unfinished project

• influences the present while present also rewrites the past

Eliot in stark contrast with Romantic cult of genius

Romantic: -focus on the individual

-poet’s unique impressions, modds, feelings, sentiments
create the organic poem by the poet’s individual genius
-poet and poetry: organic unity
-mind of the poet is the origin of the work

Eliot:-organic nature of the system
-transformative power of imagination is only important if it
can take place in the system as a whole
-separated poet from poetry
-poet is catalyst for new ideas

Balance and order of the entire system

“surrender“ of the self

“depersonalization“ (the progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, should use ordinary emotions to express new feelings)

“extinction of personality” (all show value)

writers

-only catalysts

-tradition+system write themselves

-should distance themselves form the feelings they are trying to capture

-can’t simply copy their own lives to be great:

• their art has to do with conventions, literary history, tradition, artistic effect

objective correlative

-artistic effects, questions how to convey emotion in literature

-set of objects, situations, chains of events: function as a formula for a particular emotion in the work