James Joyce's Literary Journey: From 'Dubliners' to 'Ulysses', Appunti di Inglese

Scarica James Joyce's Literary Journey: From 'Dubliners' to 'Ulysses' e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JAMES JOYCE Is a giant of letteratura in the all world because he invented a new narrative technique of the interior monologue to explore the mind of his character. Joyce’s life James Joyce is the greatest modernist novelist and for this reason he let English prose from Victoranisom into modernism. 1°period Was born in Dublin in 1882, belong to a large chaotic family. Religion vas a very important rule in his early life. He attended a Jesuit colleges where he won many scolar ships and received an excellent education. After colleges he attended university college in Dublin, where he studied modern languages ( Italian, French and Norwegian ). At 20 he graduated and he moved to Paris in order to go on studying but he had to return early in Dublin because of his mother illness, indeed she died a few months later. In this period Joyce knows Nora Danacol who will become his long life companion. Nora and Joyce moved to Paris then to Zurigo and finally the set in Trieste 2°period 1905 and he lived in Trieste for 10 years until 1915. He became an English teacher and he made friends with Ettore Smith (Italo Svevo). At that time italo Svevo, as Joyce, was an unknown author and his firs novel “Una Vita e Senilità” was ignored by the critics. For Joyce this period was very difficult because his publisher would not publish his works because they considera them obscene. In this period two important events took place: 2 children were born Giorgio and Lucia. The fact that Joyce had problems with publishers explains why his firs publish work was not a prose work, but a collection of 36 shorts poems “Chamber music”. This collection of poems was published in 1907. In 1914 Joyce published his first prose work “Dubliners”, even if he had already finish this work in 1907. “Dubliners” is a collection of 15 short stories that are all about Dublin and his life and was not considered a success but he caught the attention of the American poet Ezra Pound (American that move to Europe). Pound understood the style and the ability express in this collection by James Joyce and, indeed he reased this work and he helped Joyce to published his first novel. 3°period Joyce in Zurich in 1915. He was compelled to live in Zurich, from 1915 to 1920, because of the outbreak of the 1 world war, because he was an English citizens and was a problem to him to live in Trieste (Austrian empire). In 1916 he published his second prose work and his first novel “A portrait of the artist as a young man”. And this firs novel, tighter with “Dubliners” established him as a writer. Even if he was helped by Ezra Pound to published his novel he had financial problems and, indeed he received the firs of several anonymous donations, and just thanks to this donation he could go on writing. He started writing what is considered his masterpiece “Ulysses” the second novel. 4°period 1920 he left Zurich and he moved, with his family to Paris. He stayed in Paris for 20years and he came into contact with the most important writers, novelists, poets and painters of the moment (Elliot, Picasso, Brack). The most important figures of this period, coming all over the world, live in Paris because Paris had become a cosmopolitan city. Just when he lived in Paris it published “Ulysses” in 1922. “Ulysses” was considered, by critics, not in a positive way while novelists and poets, considered Joyce work in a very positive way and preached this novel. Elliot defined Joyce a genius. Thanks to “Ulysses” Joyce was known all over the world and it was an immediate success. 5°Period In 1940, one year before the second W.W had broken out. And one year later France was occupied by German. Again Joyce was compelled to leave for Zurich for just one year because in 1941 he died. He had also familiar problems because his daughter had mental problems. Main features of his works 1) He set all his works in Dublin, because he left Ireland when he was very young and he defined the fact that he left Ireland as a voluntary exile. He represented all the people living an ordinary life. 2) the time that we find in his works is a subjective time (subjective interpretation of reality), inspired by the scientist and the philosophers of the century (Bergson etc..). with the use of the subjective time we find the description of psychological aspects of all characters. 3) Any fact described in his works is seen from different points of view in order to give important, not to the fact itself, but to the reaction of the character. Unlike victorian novel we find the truths of the characters that see every fact in different ways. Joyce analyze the impressions that a given fact had on the characters. 4) his rejection of religion. He was born in a catholic family but a certain point he refused the religion and Catholicism and he condemned religion to have caught people inside a court of prison. This explains also the reason for which he left Ireland, he reconsidered himself a European citizens. Style James Joyce was deeply influenced by symbolism. The symbolism asserted that the impersonality of the artist, the artist has to describe the reality in a realistic way, to do these it is important that the writer have not to be present in the writings. The artist lives in isolation from the society. The task of the writer according to James Joyce is not to describe, to represent the artist viewpoint, on contrary the task is to represent the several characters that viewpoints. His most important works are: - Dubliners (is a collection of the 15 short stories, 1922) - A portrait of the artist as a young man (novel) - Ulysses (novel) - Finnegans Wake (novel) We can follow the evolution of his style if we read his prose works. Novels: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN (1916) - presence of first person narration - Minimal dialogue Evelin choice to abandoned the plan or escape with Frank, and this decisions does not make her a weaker character but at the contrary the descriptions of her thoughts can create a very strong emotional tension within the stories. The dynamics of Eveline’s character are extreme: she passes from a sense of injustice to frustration to a sens of rebirth to paralysis. She describe her plan to run away with Frank as an escape but in reality this decisions could be another trap. And she has few options for happiness because there are a few options for happiness for women at the time in Ireland. The narration - Evelyn is the first story in the collection in which toys used the first person narration. - It is the first story focused on a female character. - It is the only story in the collection that text the name of the character end it takes place in characters mind. - And Evelyn is also the first central adult character. For all these reasons Evelyn marks a transition in the collection. She represent the perspective of Dubliners but at the same time, limited by the first person narration in all the story suggested somethings about the hardships and limitation of women in the early 20th century. Dublin in general and Evelyn’s painful decisions about her life puts a tone of control and fear that can be found also in “Littoralis”. Carachters Evelyn's father He's very straight men and Evelyn is afraid of him. He usually drunk and he become violent. Evelyn's mother She was a very wicked woman. Frank Evelyn thinks of Frank as a man who could save her, because unlike her father, he is very kind and open hearted and brave boy Other female character in Dublin The other female characters that with Finder in Dubliners also focuses the very difficult conditions Live in Dublin but Evelyn, just because she faces the end reject her life remain the most tragic even if she have chosen to leave to Argentina she would have not a guaranteed herself happy. Narrative technique The narrator is a first person narrator and Evelyn’s point of view is through all the story in order to give voice to Evelyn's thought. Evelyn can be considered a modernist story I'm narrative point of you because there is no introduction; the main character is introduce the through her tought, which provide information about her past and about her future. - Technique of three direct speech, is also employed, to represent to the mental activity of characters to their experiences. ULYSSES Ulysses is his second novel and he spent many time to wrote it, .end it is considered is a masterpiece. It was published in 1922 in Paris because in that period Joyce together with his family moved to Paris. This novel was considered by many critics obscene as well as about other poets such as Ezra Pound and Elliot this novel was considered very important, indeed Elliott defined James Joyce a genius. Structural point of view Joyce followed the section of Homer Odyssey who is an epic poem describing the adventure of Ulysses and he's adventure and misadventure struggle to return back home to his wife Penelopi. Ulysses by James Joyce is made up of 18 chapters, each one reflecting an odyssey episode ( Homer odyssey is made up of 18 parts too). - These constant parallel with the myth created by homer enables Joyce to order the episodes are of ordinary live of an ordinary men, who is the main character, into a structure of eternal meaning. We are in front of an example of reworking of myth but in modernist literature. Joyce's uses an epic model just to underline the lack of heroism in the modern world. Modernist cannot believe in anything why the intellectuals of the past have the tradition to believing, so in this history we have a comparison between modern and past and glorious time. Settings and time like Dubliners, also Ulysses is set in Dublin and he tells the story of an ordinary character in ordinary place describe an ordinary life. So the setting is Dublin and time is 1904. The main characters are three: - Leopold Bloom:A Jewish advertising canvasser with the Freeman’s Journal. He is described as a polite man, pacific and sometimes timid too. Even if he never left the streets of Dublin he's a wanderer like the Greek mythological heroes. - Molly Bloom (Leopold Bloom’s wife): she is a singer who is having a love affair with the constant promoter, Boylan. we can also identify James Joyce in Bloom in his adult life. Her name when she was sigle was Marion Tweedy. The female character stands for both charming Calipso and the faithful Penelope. This character we have a cert of double. But she, at the country of Penelope, doesn't embody the prototype of a faithful woman, Indeed that she have an extra marital fare. She is absolutely modern, energetic, passionate she is a dominant female figure, who does not respect submissive rules that Penelope plays in the odyssey. For this reason that she is compared to Calypso the nymph who forced Odysseus to live with her, for 7 years, in her island. Joyce want to reproduce the change in the rule of women in the society of his time (because in Paris he met the feminist of the time and came into contact with the movement of the Suffragetts) - Steven Daedalus: Young teacher and writer who preaching the gospel, not of Jesus Christ but the gospel of the cult of beauty and art to the irish. The irish maltreat him as the hue did with saint. Steven. Steven: is the first Christian martyr. Daedalus: was artificer who built the labyrinth (labirinto), icarus father and they were locked up in a tower, by king Minosse in order not to spread his knowledge of the labyrinth that Daedalus had built. The name of Daedalus suggest Steven’s desire to fly, to run away above the constrains of religion, nationality and politics. Steven Daedalus is a young and ambitious and is the same character of Joyce’s novel “A portrait of the artist as a young man”. He is homeless, fatherless just like Daedalus. He’s presented as a very intelligent man extremely well educated, he loves music , poetry, literature. This explain why he reflected the figure of Telemachus in Odysseus’ son. We can identify James Joyce in Steven Deadalus when he was younger as well as we can also identify James Joyce in Bloom in his adult life. Story Story is about a modern hero Leopold bloom, perhaps an anti-hero, who is associated with the Ulysses. The story is set in a normal day the life of the middle aged Jewish men, in this day nothing happens. This novel is formed of association of disconnected episode which are described very precisely. The novel begins when Steven is cast out from his accommodation and he’s forced to wander in the streets of Dublin in search of a father and a home. Then he find this quality in Leopold Bloom. Steven study in a suite university and he would become a priest, but in a certain point of his life he has rejected the church. His main preoccupation is to get money to survive and is relation ship with his father is very trouble and, he want to be independent even if the combination of poverty and drink damages his health. - Leopold Bloom as Ulysses had little adventures in Dublin. - Molly Bloom the female character stands for both charming Calipso and the faithful Penelope. This character we have a cert of double. In the previous 17 chapter if she's not present directly, adjuster in Leopold thought. In the 18 chapter we find the famous Molly’s monologue. Even if Penelope is absent in many aspect of the story, describe Ulysses adventures, she has a central presence in the poem as well as in Ulysses mind, as Penelope does Molly in Joyce Ulysses. While the events of Odysseus travels on the course of 10 years and he has never lose his hopes and he is glorious and loved by all the people around him, the adventures of Bloom explains on the cruise of one day the 16 of June 1904; the day when James Joyce has known his wife (Nora Danacol). Leopold at the country of Ulysses, in Homer odyssey, is not loved by people and by his wife. Molly Bloom, as Penelope is waiting Ulysses at home during his travel, during this day she stay at home so she's away from the events that Bloom experiences, she still keeping she's a strong presence during all the novel. At the end of this day Bloom me to Dedalus and he takes Dedalus at home with him, because Leopold and Molly had lost a child, and so he was in search of a son. Narrative technique In order to describe the live or of an individual in a single day, in absence of a real plot, James choose to give the all details of that day, and above all the characters thinking process, your mental activity and their thoughts he use a new narrative technique: the direct interior monologue (shows the chaotic flow of thought in the human mind, direct because the narrator is removed. Punctuation, introductory forms removed; syntax not respected as grammar rules. Describe just irrational characters taught that are free association), use of association of ideas and subjective time order to understand the characters unconscious. Messages - The condition of the frustration of the modern men conveyed through the form confused just to present the confusion of reality. Introduced through the form which is confused as reality. - Interior monologue, to read the subjectivity of several points off view (subjective reality). - The comparison between a the modern hero or better the anti-hero and the past hero, given by the parallelism between Joyce work and the Odyssey. Comparison between Molly and Evelin The main difference between these two characters are: Molly is: strong, powerful, emancipated, self confident. Ulysses that have been brought in a 19 or 22 shows the emancipation of woman that have had the right to 3) Shell shock from the first world war 4) Technologies such as cars, airplanes and cinema She was influenced, as well as the most important social events of her time also by many artist of the period such as Proust, Stravinsky and the Post-impressionists. She explore the key motifs of modernism: 1) The subconscious 2) Time 3) Perception 4) The city 5) The impact of war Like James Joyce she use the interior monologue, but she use the indirect interior monologue in order to describe the psychological aspects of her characters. And also her novels, like the one’s of Joyce were based on quite ordinary and even banal situations and she wanted to explore the psychological and emotional tips of the characters involved MRS DALLOWAY This novel is formed on more than 200 pages, dealing with just one day in June. And this novels deal with little actions performed by the main character Mrs Dalloway. Wolf let the story developed inside her characters. The central position are occupies by the aspect of reality as precede by the characters, in font of description of subjective consciousness, we have several truth because truth is subjective (main features of the modernist novel). Themes - Disillusion with the British Empire (largest empire but in 1914 w.w broke out the allies won the world but devastation of England a less important country, a lot of soldiers died nella battaglia delle somme (battle of the sum) English citizens lost their faith on the Empire, the 20’s and 30’s characterize by many violent manifestations) - Fear of death (Clarissa Dalloway was afraid of aging and death, death is very natural in Clarissas tought and at the and she accept the idea of death. Septimius faces more directly death even if he’s afraid of death he finally choose it because he can’t live anymore) - Changes of social life of the time ( reference of newspapers, cars, cinema, planes, news technology) The story is set in London on a single day in 16th June of 1923, a Wednesday, from the morning to the evening when Clarissa organist a party. Flux of subjective time. - Cronologica time: morning afternoon, night with clock’s reference - Subjective time: given by the memories of the characters, thanks to this memories we can better known characters. Narrative technique Indirect interior monologue, we have the actions and the plot are revealed thought the mental process of the characters, passing from present to past to future. The novelist never let a character thought without control. punctuation, syntax and grammar are present. Omniscient narrator is present as a link between the character and the reader. This narrator does not express any judgment and so the reader can have his own ideas. The reader his free to have his own ideas. Moments of being: are real moment of insight during characters life when they can see reality behind appearance the moment when characters become awe of his experience, that are not exraordanery events, at the contrary of Joyce ephyfany. The main characters Clarissa Dalloway: She struggles to balance her internal life with the external world. Her world consist of parties and hight society, because she belong o the upper middle class. She explores those surfaces in search of deeper meaning, indeed she is a very sensitive woman. She always keep herself composed and she doesn’t shearing her feelings with anyone, she always overplace the past and the present (indirect interior monologue with the stream of consciousness) that strikes her to reconcile herself to life because she is characterize by 2 opposite feelings: on one hand she need freedom and independence but on the other one there is her class consciousness. In other to overcome her weakness and her sense of failure she imposes strict restrictions on her feelings, indeed Clarissa in the novel never expresses about the decisions taken that have conditioned her life, she had decision to marry Richard Dalloway a conservative member of parliament. He has conventional views on politics and on women’s right, instead of Peter, mrs Dalloway’s previous boyfriend, that stand for a genuine love. She understand that life with Peter would have been difficult but at the same time she is aware that she sacrifice passion for the security of un upper class life. But she decided the security to belong to the upper class and renounce love. Clarissa for most of the novels she was afraid of aging and death. An important moment in her life take place on the day were the novel is set, she experiences a moment of clarity and peace when she watches her old neighbors at the window and at this point she arrives at a compromise with the idea of death (moment of beings). Like Septimus she feels the oppressive forces of life, nevertheless she had an easy life without any social problems but she had a lot of interior problems, but unlike Septimus she accept the life that she has is all she will get and so her will too go on prevails in fact he commit a suicide. Septimus Warren Smith: is a veteran of the 1W.W and he suffers from shell shock he’s a victim of industrialist world (new technologies positives and negatives like poison gas, shells). He suffers from headache and insomnia. Septimus has removed himself from the world surrounding him and he lives in an internal world where he sees and hears not reel things and he speak with soldiers who fought with him and died during the war. Sometimes he is overcome with beauty in the world and could see positive aspects of life but he also fears that people have no capacity for honesty and kindness, so Septimus feels that the world who surround him is hostile. He belong to the working class. Septimus and Clarissa don’t even know each other, but they are very similar in many aspects indeed he embodies many features that clarissa shows and thinks. Septimus can also be considered a sort of Clarissa’s double in the novel: 1) from the physical pain of view they’re similare because they have big ones 2) Both love Shakespeare 3) Both feel oppressed 4) Septimus offers a contrast between the conscious struggle of working class veteran and the indifference of the upper class on the lower classes. 5) A common element is also that Both depend on their partners: Clarissa on her husband Richard, and Septimus on her wife Lucrezia for their stability and protection 6) Septimus decide to escape his problems by killing himselfs, and his dramatic Destin helps Clarissa to accept her own choices, the society in which she lives and aging and the idea of death. Like septum’s she’s ready to go on living. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN A Room of One’s Own (1929): is based on two lectures that she gave at woman’s college at Cambridge University in 1928. It shows that women have always compelled to fight for her rights and Virginia Wolf was already aware of this situation. Had become a point of reference for the feminist of 60’s and 70’s She points out the mains obstacle of the woman writers 1- the economic dependence on men, 2- prejudices about their real ability as writers. A woman need - Money: Without money, the narrator implies, women will remain in second place to their creative male counterparts. - A room where she can write on her own, mental and physical space where we should have the feeling to be free. (A room of her own would provide a woman with the time and the space to engage in uninterrupted writing time, the room is a symbol for many larger issues, such as privacy, leisure time, and financial independence). She invented the voice of a fictional narrator who tells her day at a college of the fictional university Oxbridge. On that day, the narrator is shut out of several areas, allowed just to men and finally she realizes that women have been shut out of education and the financial and intellectual legacy that men have always had access to. The next day, the narrator goes to the British Library and finds that it is a completely masculine institution. There are shelves of writings composed by men about women. She theorizes that women have been a mirror in which men have always seen themselves made bigger and stronger. For this reason Woolf thinks that it’s necessary to change the forms of literature Figure of women according to Woolf: These essay speak about education as the key to woman's emancipation. Wolf thought education could provide woman with a voice they could use to contribute to culture and eliminate the differences between men and women in a patriarchal society. According to Wolff woman have not been given the space in which to think, read and developed as intellectuals. Excluded from participation in public life woman have historically locked the freedom to voice their own ideas. The British library is a masculine institutions Women had been a mirror in which man have always seen themselves and man have used woman to asserted the inferiority. Wolf thinks that is necessary to change the forms of literature written by man. She invent the story of William Shakespeare’s sister Judith. In contrast to her brother, Judith does not have the opportunity to go to school. She finds herself trapped in the home, even if she's fascinated from literature, and she's discouraged from pursing creative goals. She never writes down her thoughts, so her ideas goes unexpressed. Wolf essay suggested that William Shakespeare success wasn't solely the product of his talent, he had the opportunity to express his talent by participating in education and public life, and the chance of leaving as a professional writer. Another character is O’Brien, who belongs to the inner party and asserts to be a secret member of the Brotherhood, but he's actually a spy and discovers that Winston has love affair with Julia. Julia works on the Ministry of love, was aim is to rieducate with violence. Another important symbol is “room 101”, where prisoners are punished with things that they fear the most. Winston is punished with a cage of rats attached to his head, which led him to betray Julia. English poetry from 1900 to 1945 The first decade of the 20th century was a period of extraordinary originality and vitality in poetry. It is possible to trace tradition and experimentation. Concerning with the tradition, there are two groups of poet: - The Georgian poets - The war poets 1) As for the Georgian poets they were deeply influence by the Victorian Romantic tradition. The most important part where Rupter Brooke, Walter Delamere and Edward Thomas. Their style employed the convention of diction, indeed they expressed sympathy towards the typical English elements, the countryside and remained indifferent to the revolution in sensibility and technique started by the symbolism. 2) The second group belonging to the tradition, The war poets, was the one of the worst parts made up of soldiers who fought during the first world war and in most cases they even lost their lives in the conflict. They represented the war in an anti- rhetorical way. This happens just in this period, indeed before poems about war were written just to support it and to spread propaganda, while the War Poets described the horrors of war using a violent and an everyday language. When the war broke out there were many volunteers, because young men sow the war as a sort of adventure and this situation lasted until 1916, meaning until the battle of the Somme, where many British solitaire lost their life. Also today the defeat of the battle of the Somme is considered the worst one in the English history, for the huge number of dead soldiers. One of the most important points of these group was Rupter Brooke, who died one year later the first world war broke out, in the 1915, indeed in his poems, he described war in an enthusiastic way. He was in favour, because he did not live the worst aspect of the war. Another important poet was Isaac Rosenberg, who was killed during the battle. Then we have Sassoon, who also fight in the war but he survived and then the fourth poet who was considered the most important was Wilfred Owen. Concerning with the experimentation there are: - The imagist poets - The modernist poets 1) The first group of poets the imagist poets flourished from 1909 to 1917 and it was helped by symbolism, which opened the way to the future imagist movement. Symbolism started the in France after the publication of “les fleurs du mal” by Charles Baudelaire. Its height was with Rimbaud, Verlaine and Mallarmé. Reacting against realism and naturalism, the symbolist aimed at representing the individual emotions by suggesting them rather than by describing them directly. The word “imagist” was cloned by the American poet Ezra Pound. The style was marked by: - indirect rather than direct statements - The importance given to the sound of the words - The use of quotations from other literature - The use of the free verse 2) the modernist poets like Elliot and Yeats were deeply influenced by symbolism and imagism. Until then poetry had had to conform to set rules as to rhyme, rhythm, metric and contents. Modernist poems brought about a revelation in literary word. The main features were: - freedom of form - It appeals to the intellect rather than to the emotion - They let their subconscious play an important role - The theme of modern poetry often is present day life in the big cities The poets of the 30s: The Auden Group also known as the 30s poets, they were connected together mainly by there early ages, Oxbridge education, socialist preferences and embarrassment about their own middle-class origins. They use their poem to reveal their political feelings and express their desire for a socialist society. The main points of the Auden group were: Auden, Cecil Day Lewis, Spender and Louis Macneice. The new Romantics They reacted against the intellectualism and realism of the political and social poetry of the time. Their poems deals with individual teams such as: love, birth and death. The most relevant poet is Dylan Thomas. WILFRED OWEN Life Wilfred Owen was born in England. After conclude his studies at London University, he went to France, where he worked as an English teacher. In France in 1915 he visited a military hospital and then he decided to return to England and enlist in the war. He was sent to the French frontier, so he returned to France, but he was wounded and consequently he was recovered at the military hospital of Edinburgh. In this hospital, he met Sassoon, who was a patient too and he had already a reputation as a poet. Sassoon read Owen’s poems and encouraged him to go on writing. In 1918 he returned to France to fight and on the fourth November he was killed, just one week before the signature of the armistice. Owen’s poetry As for the content, we can say that Owen himself has written a preface of the collection of poems, published two years later his death by is faithful friend Sassoon. The subject of his poetry was not about hills, glory and peace, but it was about war and pity of the war. The most important subject was the pity of the war, with which he wanted to mean the compassion felt for the soldiers and the feeling of sadness for their suffering. Owen’s style in is poetry he use a lot of assonance and repetition, in order to give his lines at haurting quality as for, instead, his tone used a great morality. Dulce et decorum est This is one of the most famous poems written by Owen. The title comes from the Latin put horse, according to him it was sweet to take part to war. It is clear that Owen’s ideas is completely different indeed the title is used with irony in order to assert the opposite. The poem is made up of three stanzas: - in the first stanza, we find the description of soldiers, who are retreating to the trenches, after the fighting. In the first two lines, the soldiers are described first like old beggars and in the second line like hags, who are hungry and old women. We have to consider that soldiers were very young man, but they are very tired so shocked by war. They locked likes as men who are sleeping. The Five-Nines shell where the German shells. In-line six we have to focus our attention into words: SHOD and LAME. These two words are used to describe the terrible condition of the soldiers, that lives looked animals. - In the second stanza, there is a description of the gas attack. Of course, soldiers do not know that they were hit by gas bombs, so their reaction was too shout “gas! gas! quick boys”. Even if they were tired, they had to run back in the trenches if they wanted to survive. No one could wear the gas mask on time, and the reaction was that, of a men, who is burning. Instead the few men who could wear the mask as in time they see around them a green light because the color of the gas is yellow, but the glasses of their mask make it appear green, so the soldiers have the impression to stay under the water, in which the soldiers who did not wear the mask appears like they are drowning. - In the third stanza, there is a precise subject, in the first line “you”, he's the same that the poet, in line 25, defines my friend. In this stanza, there is a description of soldiers dead. THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT Eliot was an American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor and he was also the leader of the Modernist movement in poetry. He studied at Harvard, Paris and Oxford university so he had a cosmopolitan education. He break away from the canons of traditional poetry, like joys is experimentation in the novel writing, Picasso in painting and Slavinsky in music. Every work written by Elliot is based on the contrast between past and present, past glories and present squalor. He was born in Missouri, he started at Harvard and then he went to study in Europe. He attended Sorbonne University in Paris and Cambridge. At Harvard he followed a curse of started about Renaissance philosophy, together with Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. At Sorbonne university he studied Bergson philosophy and he come into contact with the French symbolism. Then he settled in London, where he worked as clerk for a Bank and then as a director for a publisher. In 1917 he published his first work "Prufrock and Other Observations”, a collection of poems which established him as an important avanguard poet. Concerning with his personal life, it was very difficult. Because he did not have an happy marriage and he started to suffer from nervous breakdowns. In 1922, "The Waste Land”, he wrote which was written when he was recorded in Switzerland. This