Tradition and the Individual Talent, T.S. Eliot, Analysis & Explanation

Tradition and the Individual Talent, T.S. Eliot, Analysis & Explanation

Historical Background: With the upheaval of the post-war era, modernism was mirrored in fresh and inventive literary forms like free poetry and stream-of-consciousness. Meanwhile, the New Criticism, a novel method of literary analysis, gained popularity. Before the New Criticism, literary works were frequently discussed in relation to the author's biography and the times in which they were written. The New Criticism advocated removing literary works from their setting and analysing them independently. By advocating that poetry should be an impersonal and objective discipline, Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" made significant contributions to the development of the New Criticism. Eliot argued that "art may be said to approach the condition of science," yet this assertion drew a lot of criticism. The Concept of Tradition “The historical sense involves perception not only of the pastness of the past, but its presence, the historical sense compels a …