Bridge Course: Written Assignment

 

         Bridge Course: Written Assignment 

                    ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ 

                            By  T.S. Eliot 

         

          Hello! Here I am going to write another blog. The blog is a response to the Bridge Course: Written Assignment on the essay 'Tradition and Individual Talent' which is written by T.S. Eliot. This task was assigned by Dr. Dilip Bard sir , Dept of English. In this Particular blog, I will explain some questions regarding the essay of ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’. 

                                 

            'Tradition and the Individual Talent' is a major work in Eliot's prose writings, and perhaps his most famous essay.  This is an essay written by poet and literary critic T. S. Eliot. The essay was first published in The Egoist and later in Eliot's first book of criticism, "The Sacred Wood". Eliot’s most well-known works of poetry are “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915), “The Waste Land” (1922), “Ash-Wednesday” (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). 

         According to Eliot , the concept of Tradition is that part of living culture inherited from the past and functions in the formation of the present. Eliot maintains that tradition is bound up with historical sense, which is a perception that the past is not something lost and invalid.

        This essay is described by David Lodge as the most celebrated critical essay in the English of the 20th century. The essay is divided into three main parts which is given below:

• Concept of Tradition

• Theory of depersonalization and poetry

• In the last part , he Concludes that the poet's sense of tradition and the impersonality of poetry are complementary things. 

           

•  Here are some Questions and Answers mentioned of the ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’. 

How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it?

    

       T.S. Eliot's concept of Tradition is a complex and multifaceted one. The Tradition refers to the idea that every artist and writer is situated within a cultural and literary tradition that has been passed down from previous generations. 

      Eliot believed that this tradition should be embraced and respected by contemporary artists, as it provides a rich and complex body of ideas and techniques that can be drawn upon to create new works.

    

       Tradition has a three-fold significance.

•     Tradition cannot be inherited and involves a great deal of labour and erudition.

•     It involves the historical sense which involves apperception not only of the pastness of the past, but also of its presence. 

•    The historical sense enables a writer to write not only with his own generation in mind, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature from Homer down to the literature of his own country forms a continuous literary tradition.

        As claimed by Chris Baldick that Eliot had created an inverted literary history in which history being second to the permanent quality of literature, is readjusted to accommodate it to literature. Therefore, Eliot’s conception of history is a dynamic one and not static; and is forever in a state of flux.

What do you understand by Historical Sense?

       

        

           Eliot's concept of Tradition is closely related to his idea of the “Historical Sense”, which he defined as “A sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together.” He argued that in order to create something truly new and original, an artist must first have a deep understanding and respect for the traditions that have come before.

      The historical sense is the ability to see oneself and one's work in the context of both the past and the present. Eliot believed that this was a crucial quality for any artist or writer to possess, as it allowed them to create works that were both deeply rooted in tradition and yet also spoke to the contemporary moment.

•          “The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence” means that having a historical sense is not just about recognizing that the past is something that has already happened, but also understanding that the past continues to exist in the present. It is the ability to perceive the significance of past events and understand how they have shaped the world we live in today.

•          “This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional” This Quote highlights the importance of the historical sense in literature. It suggests that writers who possess a historical sense are able to connect the past with the present in a way that transcends time, creating works that are both timeless and rooted in their historical context. 

What is the relationship between “tradition” and “the individual talent,” according to the poet T. S. Eliot?

      

       “Tradition and Individual Talent” are intimately connected. Eliot argues that an individual writer's talent cannot be understood in isolation from the literary tradition. T.S. Eliot also emphasizes the importance of individual talent.

      T.S. Eliot argues that each writer brings something unique to the literary tradition. It is the writer's task to create something new and original while still drawing on the tradition. Eliot writes, "No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone."

     T.S. Eliot must engage with the literary tradition in order to create something new and original and at the same time, the writer's individual talent is what makes their work stand out and contribute to the ongoing development of the tradition.

Thank You... .