Disturbing the UniverseHUM 2213: British and American

Literature IISpring 2013Dr. Perdigao

January 28, 2013

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)• 1888 Thomas Stearns Eliot born in St. Louis, Missouri, seventh and youngest

child • 1898 Attends Smith Academy, school founded by grandfather• 1905 Publishes poems in Smith Academy Record; enrolls in Milton Academy to

prepare for Harvard• 1906 Attends Harvard• 1907 Publishes poems in Harvard Advocate• 1909 Receives A.B. at Harvard—courses in Greek, Latin, German, French and

English language and literature, history, Florentine painting, philosophy• 1910 Composes Class of 1910 Ode, Receives M.A.; attends lectures at the

Sorbonne• 1911 Returns to Harvard Graduate School for doctorate in philosophy; course in

Indic Philology, Sanskrit, and Indian Philosophy. Completes “Prufrock”• 1912 Appointed Assistant in Philosophy• 1914 Awarded traveling fellowship to study philosophy for year at Oxford;

meets Ezra Pound• 1915 Prufrock and Other Poems 1911-1912 published; takes job as teacher at

High Wycombe Grammar School• 1916 Becomes Junior Master at Highgate Junior School; dissertation accepted• 1917 Enters Colonial and Foreign Department of Lloyds Bank in the City of

London; becomes Assistant Editor of The Egoist

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)• 1919 “Tradition and the Individual Talent” published in The Egoist

• 1921 Suffers breakdown, three months leave from Lloyds Bank, completes drafting of The Waste Land

• 1922 The Waste Land published in The Criterion

• 1925 Goes into publishing with Faber & Gwyer, publishes Poems 1909-1925

• 1927 Baptized and confirmed in Church of England; becomes a naturalized British citizen

• 1932 Selected Essays 1917-1932; Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard

• 1936 Collected Poems 1909-1935 published

• 1947 Honorary doctorates by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton

• 1948 Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

• 1952 The Complete Poems and Plays published in the US

• 1963 Collected Poems 1909-1962

• 1964 Awarded US Medal of Freedom

• 1965 Dies January 4; ashes later interred in west end of parish church of East Coker

Reenvisioning The Waste Land• http://www.blork.org/blorkblog/2007/10/20/i-can-has-waste-land/

• http://corprew.org/content/lolcat-wasteland/

(full poem)

Do I Dare?• Disturbing the universe

• Middle age

• Question of the meaning of existence, of being

• Hamlet

• Dramatic monologue

• Stasis

• Creation or destruction

• Desire or death

Fragments and Ruins• Urban setting, world of the city

• Isolation, alienation

• Fragmentation in style and theme—loss and liberation

• Crisis of masculinity post World War I

• Psychological state of the individual, of the larger society and civilization

• The value and possibilities for poetry, for creation