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Tue 21 Feb, 2006 12:45 pm
I've looked through this forum a few times and I've finally got a question to ask. I have a paper to do for my American Fiction class and I seem to be struggling with my arguments. The topic is the use of allusion and I'm going to be writing about T.S. Eliot, focusing on The Wasteland. The question is "what is the function of such allusions? What is distinctive about this author's use of allusion?"
When I spoke to my TA, I suggested the following:
- Eliot's allusion to other works helps direct the actions of the poem in a more solid narrative way where there are only fragments.
- Eilot's notes for The Wasteland guides what the readers sees as an allusion. Sometimes, he'll give a reference for 2 words that are found in another work. Does word order necessarily mean allusion? I'm going to argue that his own notes to the text changes the way a reader understands the poem because it incorporates allusions we couldn't have placed under our own knowledge.
So there were my main points and he said "that's fine, but try to be more controversial." That's the same thing he said on my last paper which got me a B. If I want an A, I'm going to have to be controversial, whatever that means.
So my question is this: does anyone know of any controversial arguments I could use for this essay?
Any help will be greatly appreciated since I'm at a bit of a loss.
Vanity, Welcome to A2K. Frankly, I found Eliot's Wasteland to be one of the most difficult poems that I have ever tried to read and interpret.
It is obvious that you understand allusion so I won't go into that.
This link may help you, but it didn't do a thing for me.
http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html
At one time, I pursued the idea that Eliot was alluding to Myerling and the tragedy that occurred there. Try substantiating that, because your prof may find that very controversial.
link to Myerling:
http://www.cyberus.ca/~stridon.press/antbar1.shtml
Good Luck, and let us know what happens.
If the assignment allows it, your best bet might be to talk about World War I and the general plight of the postwar poets who were reeling from its horrors. Eliot was just one of a renowned group of literaries forging a new style of "impersonalism" as a reponse to the war. Simplistically put, the emotional outpourings of (German) Romanticism were "blamed" for the war, and so it is no coincidence that Eliot's postwar poetry is characterized by an avoidance of personal expression. This is usually how his reliance on allusion is understood, because to quote someone else's words is to avoid using one's own words, which is to remove oneself from whatever is being expressed.
Very well put, shapeless, and quite succinct.
Thank you both very much for your replies. It helped to clear my head a little. I think I'm going to really focus on how Eliot's use of allusion is unique and distinctive, since there seems to be more room for originality in that realm. Simply put, my argument will be that Eliot uses allusion not to illuminate his meaning, but to hide it. I think I can draw from the text more with that.
Again, thanks for the replies and of course more feedback would be great.
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