• Personal –

introspective

flow of thought -

written in a

moment of crisis

• Five sections;

reflect the

fragmented

experience of

the 20th c.

T. S. Eliot

The Waste Land

Painting Death Apocalypse Hieronymus Bosch

• Collection of undefined states of

mind, hallucinations, impressions,

personalities – blended and

superimposed

• Voice goes beyond the boundaries

of time and place.

• The speaking voice is related to

various personalities:

Tiresias,

a knight from the Grail legend,

the Fisher King.

• disillusionment and disgust after World War I.

• Contrast between

past – fertility and

Present – sterility.

• The mythical past linked to a new concept of History (repetition of the same events - Vico)

Though reality has somehow become warped (ill)

• Spring Symbols: compared to Chaucer – no rebirth.

Themes

April is the cruelest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.

Style

Quotations from a series of works of diff. cultures.Quotations from a series of works of diff. cultures.

Fragmentation of text.Fragmentation of text.

reader is required to “presume” significance.reader is required to “presume” significance.

Use of the idea of objective correlative : Use of the idea of objective correlative :

Repetition of words, images and phrasesRepetition of words, images and phrases.

Association of ideas – past and present are relative.

Myth – to give depth to present stagnation.

The Intimate – Introspective as representative of all humanity – universal.

Use of Juxtaposition, Enjambement – Jarring, displacing the reader . Forcing reflection

expressing emotion in the form of art - "objective correlative“objects, a situation, events which trigger that particular emotion so the external sensory experience directs the emotion immediately evoked

“Objective correlative” a pattern, events, actions, or situation - awaken in the reader emotional response without direct statement of that subjective emotion. i.e. - The day the world woke up

to scream

i.e. – Today I Glittered

Objective correlative

Eliot - Montale depict bleak setting. reference to a barren setting – spiritual emptiness. World decadence in Eliot. Native – local emptiness (isolation) in Montale.

What The Thunder said Meriggiare pallido e assorto (“Ossi di Seppia”)

Here is no water but only rockRock and no water and the sandy roadThe road winding above among the mountainsWhich are mountains of rock without water.

Meriggiare pallido e assortopresso un rovente muro d’orto,ascoltare tra i pruni e gli sterpischiocchi di merli, frusci di serpi.

Association – T. S. Eliot and Montale

Modern world view 19th-century world view

Chaotic - Complex Ordered

Futile Meaningful

Pessimistic Optimistic

Unstable Stable

Loss of faith Faith

Loss of moral values Morality/Values

Uncertain identity Clearly defined sense of identityJohn Everett Millais