• Title/Summary/Keyword: "Gerontion"

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"Gerontion" and The Waste Land: Why Did Eliot Intend to Make "Gerontion" a Preface to The Waste Land? (『황무지』와 「게론티온」-왜 엘리엇이 「게론티온」을 『황무지』 서시로 사용하려 했었나?)

  • Lee, Cheol hee
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.55 no.2
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    • pp.359-382
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    • 2009
  • Eliot's The Waste Land represents the last century in many respects. While working on the poem in cooperation with Pound, Eliot intended to make "Gerontion" a prelude in The Waste Land. But, as we read in his letter to Eliot, Pound advised him against it. As a result, Eliot had excluded it from The Waste Land. "Gerontion" was published separately, as an independent poem. Between "Gerontion" and The Waste Land, we find that the theme and the techniques are very much alike. However, for this very reason Eliot and Pound must have had thought differently. Eliot must have thought that "Gerontion" would serve well as a preface to the long poem, The Waste Land. It will provide a good introduction to the long poem, he may have thought. In the meantime, Pound must have thought that such similarities in theme and techniques would weaken both works, which would be redundant. To Pound, it would be too much to have the summary of everything that is to be repeated in The Waste Land. Eliot intuitively followed Pound's judgment. Both "Gerontion" and The Waste Land have similarities in theme and techniques. The theme of both works is "aimlessness, spiritual sterility, barrenness" in modern man living in the waste land. For example, in "Gerontion," there appear an old man Gerontion, Mr. Silvero, Hakagawa, Madame de Tornquist, Fraulein von Kulp, who are representative of spiritual barrenness of modern world; in the same context, in The Waste Land those who are most representative of modern world are the Typist, clerk, Thames's daughters, Madamn Sosostris, Tiresias, Phelabas. And in terms of techniques, "Gerontion" and The Waste Land both use dramatic monologues, allusions, and the techniques of modern art, such as montage and mosaic. Here in these works Eliot in fact practises his theory of the "Objective Correlative" that he has invented.