T.S. Eliot and early modern literature

Description

This title, for the first time, considers the full imaginative and moral engagement of one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot, with the Early Modern period of literature in English (1580-1630). This engagement haunted Eliot's poetry and critical writing across his career, and would have a profound impact on subsequent poetry across the world, as well as upon academic literary criticism, and wider cultural perceptions. To this end, the book elucidates and contextualizes several facets of Eliot's thinking and its impact: through establishment of his original and eclectic understanding of the Early Modern period in relation to the literary and critical source materials available to him; through consideration of uncollected and archival materials, which suggest a need to reassess established readings of the poet's career; and through attention to Eliot's resonant formulations about the period in consequent literary, critical and artistic arenas. Read more... Abstract: T.S. Eliot and Early Modern Literature provides a comprehensive discussion of the engagement of Eliot with that earlier English literary period which he declared to be his favourite. It offers a full sense of the critical and literary context against which Eliot measured his own ideas on Early Modern poets and playwrights. Read more...