T.S. Eliot, Poetry, and Earth

The Name of the Lotos Rose

By (author) Etienne Terblanche

Publication date:

12 May 2016

Length of book:

230 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739189573

T. S. Eliot enjoyed a profound relationship with Earth. Criticism of his work does not suggest that this exists in his poetic oeuvre. Writing into this gap, Etienne Terblanche demonstrates that Eliot presents Earth as a process in which humans immerse themselves. The Waste Land and Four Quartets in particular re-locate the modern reader towards mindfulness of Earth’s continuation and one’s radical becoming within that process. But what are the potential implications for ecocriticism? Based on its careful reading of the poems from a new material perspective, this book shows how vital it has become for ecocriticism to be skeptical about the extent of its skepticism, to follow instead the twentieth century’s
most important poet who, at the end of searing skepticism, finds affirmation of Earth, art, and real presence.

Introduction and Chapter Outline: T. S. Eliot, Nature Poet?
Chapter 1
Rock Solid Proof, Or: The Matter with Prufrock
Chapter 2
Dislocation: Dearth, Desert, and Global Warming
Chapter 3
Location: Mandalic Structure in The Waste Land
Chapter 4
Immersion: The Authentic Jellyfish, the True Church, and the Hippopotamus
Chapter 5
Dissolving: The Name of the Lotos Rose
Chapter 6
Bad Orientalism: Eliot, Edward Said, and the Moha
Chapter 7
The Tyrannies of Differentiation: Eliot, New Materialism, and “Infinite Semiosis”
Conclusion
Where does the Truth of New Materialism Lie?: A Response Based on Eliot’s Poetry

In this groundbreaking study of T. S. Eliot’s work, Terblanche draws on ecocriticism and Buddhism to argue that the poet had a profound relationship with the earth, defined as a system of material and aesthetic realities in which humans are entangled and interconnected. His readings of ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,’ The Waste Land, and Four Quartets demonstrate Eliot’s awareness of Becoming and his belief in keeping time with the changes of our lives. Building on the insights of ‘new materialism,’ he convincingly supports Eliot’s belief in poetry as embodiment. In this fine study, Terblanche both extends and interrogates previous criticism on the twentieth-century’s premier poet.