Concetti Chiave
- Thomas Eliot was born in 1888 in Missouri, USA, and was educated at Harvard, with a cultural background influenced by English and European literature.
- He moved to London during World War I, working as a teacher and bank clerk, and married a woman with mental health issues.
- In 1925, Eliot became a director at Faber and Faber, where he published his writings, including "The Waste Land" during a stay in a Swiss sanatorium.
- Eliot's works are divided into two periods: pre-conversion to Anglicanism with themes of pessimism, and post-conversion focusing on joy and hope.
- He shared with James Joyce the belief that artists should maintain an impersonal approach, separating personal suffering from creative expression.
Thomas Eliot
Thomas Eliot was born in 1888 in Missouri (USA) and he has been educated in Harvard. But his cultural background was at first English and then European; in fact he discovered the English Metaphysical poet John Donne and he learned Italian by studying Dante. In 1910 he first went to Europe and studied in Paris at the Sorbonne; later he came back to Harvard and took a degree in philosophy.
When the First World War came out he settled in London where he taught, worked in a bank as a clerk and married a woman who was told to have some mental problems.
In 1925 he became a director for the publishers Faber and Faber, publishing all his writings trough them.
In 1925 he published The Hollow Man, a poem written as a sequel to The Waste Land’s philosophical despair, even here the seeds of his future faith may be found. Two years later he became a British citizen and joined the Church of England finding the answers to his own questionings.
In the 1930s and 1940s Eliot turned his interest towards the problems of modern society. In 1948 received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
His works can be divided in two periods:
- The works before his conversion to Anglicanism, as The Waste Land and The Hollow Man, characterized by a pessimistic vision of the world, where life has no meaning.
- The works after his conversion, as Ash Wednesday, Murder in the cathedral, where the main theme is joy, hope and purification.
He joined with Joyce the way of thinking that the artist has to be impersonal and to separate “the man who suffer” from the mind which creates”.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali sono stati i principali eventi della vita di Thomas Eliot che hanno influenzato la sua carriera letteraria?
- Come si dividono le opere di Thomas Eliot e quali sono i temi principali di ciascun periodo?
- Qual è stata l'influenza della conversione religiosa di Eliot sulla sua produzione letteraria?
Thomas Eliot è nato nel 1888 in Missouri e ha studiato a Harvard. Ha vissuto in Europa, studiando a Parigi e lavorando a Londra durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale. Nel 1925 è diventato direttore per Faber and Faber e ha pubblicato le sue opere attraverso di loro. Ha ricevuto il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel 1948.
Le opere di Eliot si dividono in due periodi: prima della sua conversione all'anglicanesimo, caratterizzate da una visione pessimistica del mondo, come "The Waste Land" e "The Hollow Man"; e dopo la conversione, con temi di gioia, speranza e purificazione, come "Ash Wednesday" e "Murder in the Cathedral".
Dopo la sua conversione alla Chiesa d'Inghilterra, Eliot ha trovato risposte alle sue domande esistenziali, e i suoi lavori successivi riflettono temi di gioia, speranza e purificazione, in contrasto con la disperazione filosofica delle sue opere precedenti.
Accedi a tutti gli appunti
Tutor AI: studia meglio e in meno tempo
