T. S. Eliot: The Modernist in History

The centenary of Eliot’s birth in 1988 provided the salutary occasion for a fresh look at his life and work and a reassessment in light of issues raised by the various critical movements - the new historicism, feminism, reader-reception theory - that have succeeded the New Criticism, loosely subsumable under the rubric post-structuralist. The essays assembled here vary in approach, but they share a commitment to the discipline of history and an awareness that history can function as critique as well as celebration. Several contributors take issue with Eliot’s self-presentation and include documents Eliot chose not to emphasise. Others address topics including the business of producing culture in twentieth-century writing, the impact of self-professed masculinist poetry on women readers and modernism’s social vouchers.

Contributors

Ronald Bush, Lyndall Gordon, Carol Christ, James Longenbach, John T. Mayer, Lawrence Rainey, A. Walton Litz, Alan Williamson, Michael North