WHAT DOES ELIOT MEAN BY “TRADITION” ?
HOW CAN WE TELL WHAT IS TRADITIONAL ?
WHAT RELATION SHOULD THE WRITER HAVE TO THE WRITINGS OF THE PAST?
T S Eliot in his 1919 essay Tradition and the Individual Talent elucidates his concept on tradition and it’s importance on individuality of poet. He begins the essay by pointing out that “tradition” is generally regarded as a word of censure. Eliot says that English people praise poet’s for wrong reasons. But he says, the most individual part of a poet’s mind shows the influence of past writers. According to Eliot “… if we approach a poet without this prejudice, we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual part of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their
immortality most vigorously”.
To elucidate upon literary tradition Eliot brings the significance of past writers. He says that tradition does not mean blind adherence to the ways of previous generations. He also says that tradition in the sense of passive repetition is to be discouraged. He says “novelty is better than repetition”. By “tradition” eliot means the recognition of the continuity of past literature. The sense of tradition instills the fact in the mind of poets that, writers of the past continue to be significant in the present. According to T S Eliot, tradition involves a historical sense. This historical sense involves the perception of not only the pastness of the past, but also it’s presence. In other words, Eliot means that the historical sense in tradition, enables the poet to realise that past is not something isolated from the present. So, the poet perceives the essence of the past through this sense. A man of historical sense have the knowledge and understanding of the whole literature of Europe from Homer to his present day and it’s significance. The writer realises that past exist in the present and both are simultaneous. 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”. By this Eliot means that the writer is conscious of his own generation, it’s significance and he is also conscious about his relationship with past writers.
Next argument from Eliot is the relation of a poet with tradition and how can a poet acquire the sense of tradition. In his words “tradition cannot be inherited, and if you want if you must obtain it by great labour”. This is knowing the past writers, not blind adherence and knowing what is good and useful. The sense of tradition not only implies recognition of continuity of literature, but the critical judgement of pastness and it’s significance. As Eliot said this knowledge and judgement demands great effort. This judgement is for principle of aesthetic and not for merely historical criticism. The present writers should compare and contrast the writings of the past. This is the relation of present writers to past writings. Such comparison and contrast is essential for forming a significant idea for a new writer. According to Eliot tradition is dynamic, which is not fixed and static. It keeps changing. A writer seeks guidance from the past and a new work modifies the past. In his own words he says ” past should be altered by the present and present is directed by the past”. So when a new literary work is created, the whole literary tradition is modified. So, the relation of past and present is reciprocal. To quote Eliot ” the existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them.” The past writings will not become insignificant. Every great writer like Virgil, Dante and Shakespeare never gets insignificant and they contribute to literary tradition. In this relation of the present writers to the past, the comparison and contrast is not to determine which is good or bad. It is to know facts, for the purpose of analysis and for the better understanding of the new work. The past writers should be examined critically.
Another important factor about the relation of present writers to the past is that, a poet should not be content with the poet of any particular age or major writers. The poet must know the main trends and he must also know main litrary trends and he must also know main literary trends are not determined by great poets, ordinary poet’s are also significant. So this surrender to tradition is more valuable than individuality. By a sense of tradition, poet allows his poetic sensibility to be moulded and modified by the past and it is fundamental for poetic creation.
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