T. S. Elliot's "The Waste Land" (Critical Studies of Key Texts) - Softcover

Reeves, Gareth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745007384 ISBN 13: 9780745007380

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

This work argues that although "The Waste Land" demands close reading, the spirit of the old New Criticism works with inappropriate assumptions about unity and closed form. Many critics have tried to fix the text, to find hidden narratives and plots, spiritual guests and allegories of salvation. Instead, this reading sees the poem as resolutely open-ended, supporting this view with recent developments in Reader-Response criticism and Reception Theory. The study focuses on the way poetry sounds (or does not sound, cannot be sounded). It concentrates on syntax, lineation and intonation. It also brings out the presence of the muted voices of wronged women in a work often called misogynistic.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This book starts from the premise that The Waste Land demands close reading. The appearance of the poem in 1922 started a critical debate that continues to this day. Reviewers and critics, whether favourable or hostile, have written about it in terms of theme, form and content. Many have considered it formless and fragmented, or have attempted to find coherence in it with assumptions about unity and closed form, trying to fix the text, to locate hidden narratives, spiritual quests, or allegories of salvation. However, Gareth Reeves contends that the poem is resolutely open-ended, a view supported by recent developments in reader-response criticism and reception theory. He seeks to present a close reading that avoids formalistic assumptions, allusion hunting, paraphrase and thematic treatment. The aim of this study is to draw readers into the text so that they can experience it anew. Gareth Reeves argues that its meaning comes largely from the way the poetry sounds, and his reading therefore concentrates on all the ways of sounding: syntax, lineation, intonation. It also brings out the presence of the muted voices of wronged women in a work often branded as misogynistic.|This textbook series focuses on some of the 'classics' of English Literature offering new and challenging ways of reading them by drawing on recent developments in modern literary theory.

About the Author:

Gareth Reeves is Reader in English at Durham University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0745007384
• ISBN 13: 9780745007380
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 134