Aethereal Rumours: T.S. Eliot's Physics and PoeticsBucknell University Press, 1998 - 318 pages This study combines ideas from many different disciplines and historical periods to yield a broad and penetrating analysis of T. S. Eliot's thinking about the relation between the material and spiritual worlds. Lockerd demonstrates that Eliot developed a poetic theory based on his antidualistic belief that mind and matter are not entirely separate, a theory that emphasizes natural symbols such as the elements and the seasonsnonarbitrary symbols rooted in our physical experience. The book thus offers a forceful response to those who would see Eliot as a precursor of so-called postmodern literary theory. Instead, Lockerd finds in Eliot's poetic theory and practice an attempt to achieve what is called in Four Quartets the "impossible union / Of spheres of existence." |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Abstract Materialism and Incarnational Symbolism | 15 |
Polis and Cosmos in Prufrock and Other Observations | 83 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract aether ancient appears atoms become beginning belief Bergson body called Christian comes concept connection continuity course criticism dark dead death describes divine early earth Einstein's elements empty energy essay existence experience fact final fire Four Quartets garden gives Heraclitus human idea identified later laws light lines Little living material matter meaning metaphysical mind movement moving mysterious mystical nature notes notion object opening opposites particles passage pattern philosophy physics poem poet poetic poetry present pure question quoted reality reference relation relativity rose sacramental scientific scientists seems seen sense soul space speaks spiritual substance suggests symbols T. S. Eliot takes theory things thinking thought tion Tiresias transformation true turn union University University Press voice void Waste Land waves whole wind writes York