After Strange Gods (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: T. S. Eliot
- First Published: 1933
- Type of Work: Critical and cultural essay
- Genres: Nonfiction, Essays
- Subjects: Tradition, Authors or writers, Literature, Sin or Original sin, Religion, Writing, Individuality, Creative process, Hell
Critical Evaluation:
In 1919, T. S. Eliot published a short essay titled “Tradition and the Individual Talent” in which he attempted to correct a popular notion of tradition which would oppose that term to individuality and originality. Eliot argues that a contemporary writer must neither slavishly imitate the past nor imagine that he, as an individual, can be independent of the past. Making use of the philosopher William James’s ideas, Eliot explains that tradition affects what an individual can do and that what is newly added to that tradition in some small way changes...
[The entire page is 1288 words long]
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