Thomas Stearns Eliot, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Thomas Stearns Eliot e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT​ (pages 440, 441, 442) He is a symbolist and modernist, everybody has to confront him when writing poetry in the 20th century in England. Life ● He was born in 1888 in St Louis (Missouri, USA). He didn't spend much of his life there. ● In 1910 he was in Europe studying in Paris. ● In 1915 he married the ballet dancer Vivienne Haigh-Wood (it was a sad marriage) She suffered from physical problems. ● He slowly became an avant-garde poet. In the meantime he was living in England and working in London, he hated his first job (bank). He wrote a lot during this period. ● 1922 is the key year, he published the work which breaks the ground, a long poem named ​The Waste Land​. ● Established as one of the most important writers, he left the work in the bank and in 1925 he became the director for the publishers ​Faber & Faber​. ● In 1927 he asked british citizenship and he converted to Anglicanism, the conversion was important and had an influence on his works also. He wrote only one play “​Murder in the Cathedral​”. Deal with the assassination of Thomas Becked in the church of Caentebrurry because he was in a fight with the king. He was catolich and now he is considered as a saint. ● In 1948 received the nobel of literature ● In 1965 he died in London Works 19th century world ● After the conversion his focus changes, he is more focused on religious topics ● He was a revolutionary, he changed the way to write poetry ● His ways to write > modernism ● Victorian world: ➔ Ordered, period of utilitarianism, very pragmatic, focused on money and numbers, very rational and with an aim ➔ The word was continually progressing (train faster, better sanitary conditions ) everything seem improving ➔ Period with a great sense of identity, solidity, wester power ● 19th England is the most powerful nation of the war: biggest empire, biggest industrial system Before the conversion After the conversion Prufrock and Other Observations​ (1917) Ash-Wednesday​ (1930) The Waste Land​ (1922) “the single most influential poetic work of the 20th century” Four Quartets ​(1935-1942) The Hollow Men​ (1925) Murder in the Cathedral ​(1935) Family Reunion​ (1939) ● With the arrival of the 20th century everything crumbled, the inventions and the certainly were slowly demolished demolished > crisis of modern men ● First decades of 20th century things changed radical: 1. first war world it was meant to be short, it practically eliminated the whole generation the attitude of people changed they understand what war was > disillusion 2. competition with others other country in the europe strat becoming really important the ones with coal became competitive (for example Germany) 3. empire the colonies start to ask for more independence and in long run they obtained it the various countries asked for different conditions during that period, slowly,smaller country left the empire 4. cultural crisis affected by economic and political factors, they brought up victorian morality, optimism they were convinced they were living in the word that is going to improve ● The Victorian man believed he had full control of his life, he could only have a bright future. William freud Freud contribute to shaken the idea of solidity and sense of identity of the Victorian man: he brought the theory of unconscious Freud ideas: ● The victorian man believed he was making the right choice, he felt at home. ● In reality,there is unconscious , even when we think we are making a logical decision, there will be always something that isn't logical Einstein At that moment science was never wrong. With Einstein's theory of relativity it changes. Nice Started to talk about death to God ● The 20th century was the century where religion started to lose power in the west world. ● People started to doubted the existence of God ● All the certains of the victorian man were disappeared The Waste Land ● published in 1922 ● it is a long poem ● divided in 5 sections they are very different to one another, some are very short and other much longer ● written in a very difficult period of his life ● when he was married he had a nervous breakdown he went to a psychological clinic he wrote why he was in Switzerland ● made of fragments of other books ● he wanted to give an idea of the life of men in the 20th century men