Description
T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land is often considered to be the most important poem written in English in the twentieth century. The poem dramatically shattered old patterns of form and style, proposed a new paradigm for poetry and poetic thought, demanded recognition from all literary quarters, and changed the ways in which it was possible to approach, read, or write poetry. The Waste Land helped to define the literary and artistic period known as modernism. This Companion is the first to be dedicated to the work as a whole, offering fifteen new essays by international scholars and covering an extensive range of topics. Written in a style that is at once sophisticated and accessible, these fresh critical perspectives will serve as an invaluable guide for scholars, students, and general readers alike.
Table of Contents
1. 'The world has seen strange revolutions since I died': The Waste Land and the Great War Jean-Michel Rabaté; 2. Geographies of space: mapping and reading the cityscape Spencer Morrison; 3. 'Mixing/memory and desire': what Eliot's biography can tell us Lyndall Gordon; 4. Religions east and west in The Waste Land Barry Spurr; 5. Popular culture in The Waste Land David E. Chinitz and Julia E. Daniel; 6. Form, voice, and the avant-garde Michael Levenson; 7. Dialectical collaboration: editing The Waste Land Jewel Spears Brooker; 8. Doing tradition in different voices: pastiche in The Waste Land Michael Coyle; 9. Gender and obscenity in The Waste Land Rachel Potter; 10. Trauma and violence in The Waste Land Richard Badenhausen; 11. Psychology, psychoanalysis, and new subjectives in The Waste Land Eve Sorum; 12. The Waste Land as ecocritique Gabrielle McIntire; Coda: The Waste Land's afterlife: the poem's reception in the twentieth century and beyond Tony Cuda.
