often said that The Waste Land is a crucial event in the ‘Modernist’ movement, and that its methods and interests are the literary equivalent of methods and interests in the works of, say, Picasso and Stravinsky. From what you know about these other artists, is this categorization of Eliot’s work valid?
For Further Reading
Biography
Gordon, Lyndall. T. S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life. London: Vintage, 1998. Exhaustive and highly regarded study of Eliot’s life and career.
Critical Studies
Asher, Kenneth. T. S. Eliot and Ideology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Demonstrates the effect of politics on Eliot’s work, with attention to the influence of French reactionary thinking.
Brooker, Jewel Spears. Mastery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. Analyzes modernism as a cultural and literary phenomenon and as an ideology, focusing on Eliot and his relations to Mallarmé, Hulme, Yeats, and Joyce.
Bush, Ronald. T. S. Eliot: A Study in Character and Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Argues that Eliot’s character was torn by the same conflict that charged his poetry—an intense tension between romantic yearning and intellectual detachment.
Chinitz, David. T. S. Eliot and the Cultural Divide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Examines Eliot’s engagement with popular culture, such as American jazz, and finds that his attitude toward such culture is surprisingly less hostile than has been generally assumed.
Julius, Anthony. T. S. Eliot: Anti-Semitism and Literary Form. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003. Controversial study of Eliot’s deployment of anti-Semitic discourse and the role it played in his literary works.
Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet. 1959. New York: Harcourt, 1969. An old but classic account of Eliot’s career, by one of the liveliest writers in the field.
Malamud, Randy. The Language of Modernism. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989. Explains why modernist literature looks the way it does, and how readers may learn to understand the language, style, and tropes of Eliot, Woolf, and Joyce.
Menand, Louis. Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1992. Intellectual history of Eliot and the role he played in the rise of literary modernism.
Moody, Anthony David. Tracing T. S. Eliot’s Spirit: Essays on His Poetry and Thought. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Discusses Eliot’s quest for the world of the spirit, with attention to the religions and cultures of America, India, and Europe.
North, Michael. Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of the Modem. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Discusses the cultural climate of the year in which The Waste Land and Ulysses were published, The Great Gatsby was set, the Fascists took over in Italy, the Irish Free State was born, the Harlem Renaissance reached its peak, and Charlie Chaplin’s popularity peaked.
Sigg, Eric. The American T. S. Eliot: A Study of the Early Writings. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Discusses the significance of Eliot’s American heritage, which is often overlooked; elucidates links between Eliot’s work and that of Henry James, Henry Adams, and George Santayana.
Skaff, William. The Philosophy of T. S. Eliot: From Skepticism to a Surrealist Poetic, 1909-1927. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. A study of the philosophical backdrop to Eliot’s life and poetry.
Svarny, Erik. ‘The Men of 1914’: T. S. Eliot and Early Modernism. Milton Keynes, U.K., and Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press, 1988. Examines Eliot’s work in relation to his contemporaries, especially Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, and T. E. Hulme.
Essay Collections
Brooker, Jewel Spears, ed. T. S. Eliot and Our Turning World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Essay topics include ‘Shakespeare/Dante and
For Further Reading
Biography
Gordon, Lyndall. T. S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life. London: Vintage, 1998. Exhaustive and highly regarded study of Eliot’s life and career.
Critical Studies
Asher, Kenneth. T. S. Eliot and Ideology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Demonstrates the effect of politics on Eliot’s work, with attention to the influence of French reactionary thinking.
Brooker, Jewel Spears. Mastery and Escape: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. Analyzes modernism as a cultural and literary phenomenon and as an ideology, focusing on Eliot and his relations to Mallarmé, Hulme, Yeats, and Joyce.
Bush, Ronald. T. S. Eliot: A Study in Character and Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Argues that Eliot’s character was torn by the same conflict that charged his poetry—an intense tension between romantic yearning and intellectual detachment.
Chinitz, David. T. S. Eliot and the Cultural Divide. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Examines Eliot’s engagement with popular culture, such as American jazz, and finds that his attitude toward such culture is surprisingly less hostile than has been generally assumed.
Julius, Anthony. T. S. Eliot: Anti-Semitism and Literary Form. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003. Controversial study of Eliot’s deployment of anti-Semitic discourse and the role it played in his literary works.
Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet. 1959. New York: Harcourt, 1969. An old but classic account of Eliot’s career, by one of the liveliest writers in the field.
Malamud, Randy. The Language of Modernism. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989. Explains why modernist literature looks the way it does, and how readers may learn to understand the language, style, and tropes of Eliot, Woolf, and Joyce.
Menand, Louis. Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1992. Intellectual history of Eliot and the role he played in the rise of literary modernism.
Moody, Anthony David. Tracing T. S. Eliot’s Spirit: Essays on His Poetry and Thought. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Discusses Eliot’s quest for the world of the spirit, with attention to the religions and cultures of America, India, and Europe.
North, Michael. Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of the Modem. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Discusses the cultural climate of the year in which The Waste Land and Ulysses were published, The Great Gatsby was set, the Fascists took over in Italy, the Irish Free State was born, the Harlem Renaissance reached its peak, and Charlie Chaplin’s popularity peaked.
Sigg, Eric. The American T. S. Eliot: A Study of the Early Writings. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Discusses the significance of Eliot’s American heritage, which is often overlooked; elucidates links between Eliot’s work and that of Henry James, Henry Adams, and George Santayana.
Skaff, William. The Philosophy of T. S. Eliot: From Skepticism to a Surrealist Poetic, 1909-1927. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. A study of the philosophical backdrop to Eliot’s life and poetry.
Svarny, Erik. ‘The Men of 1914’: T. S. Eliot and Early Modernism. Milton Keynes, U.K., and Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press, 1988. Examines Eliot’s work in relation to his contemporaries, especially Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, and T. E. Hulme.
Essay Collections
Brooker, Jewel Spears, ed. T. S. Eliot and Our Turning World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Essay topics include ‘Shakespeare/Dante and
Similar Books
