On Eliot's Poetics Of "Tradition"

Modern English writing unconsciously degrades "Tradition"into the vocabulary of archeology. "Tradition"almost equals to unoriginality and inanimateness. If a modern writer's works is categorized in traditional style or school, then the writer is shown to lack creativeness and personal talents. So to proof their own talents, modern people are anxious to make a clear distinction with tradition to shake off the bondage of tradition. As a matter of fact, people can never completely divorce from tradition. Tradition has deep rooted in the minds of people through transmission from generation to generation and has become an inseparable part in ideology. All the so-called originality breaking tradition turns out to be the new interpretation and choice from higher level and new perspective. Newly created works is bound to be influenced and constrained potentially by tradition. Eliot's poetics regarding "tradition"as the nuclear inner part is such thoughts and search as attaching to tradition and digging deep into tradition. Ever since the publication of Tradition and the Individual Talent as the manifesto of his poetics, he began his twisting and tough journey returning to the tradition. The starting point of Eliot's poetics is the literary comment. From the discussion on what criteria should be adopted to evaluate writers and works in literary criticism, Eliot improved the status of literary "tradition"to the nuclear status of literary criticism study. Eliot insisted on the independence of literary system and advocated that any literary comment should return to the inner part of literary system with the literary "tradition"as evaluation criteria. As for the definition of "tradition", Eliot abandoned the general idea that regarded tradition as stiff and close system within the past history. When affirming the pastness of the past, Eliot introduced the concept of the pastness of the presentness to traditional system and added ceaseless life vitality to tradition, making tradition historic concept combing pastness of the past and pastness of the presentness and making tradition dynamic and open structure covering the past, existing in the presence and orienting to the future. In such open traditional system, "the past"as the nuclear part shows the wisdom, talent and rich life experience of predecessors. And "the past"is the testimony of the past history and civilization and it will influence constantly the development of the times. But "presence"as the living factor supplementing the system makes the system at the repetitious cycling of "complete——readjusted——complete"and makes the system constantly move into the future. With his "tradition"as the evaluation criterion at theoretical level, Eliot employed the method of minute text analysis and analyzed the metaphysical works which was excluded from the literary main stem. Eliot's reexamining the metaphysical works helped metaphysical school to find his own position in British literary history. In the sphere of literary creation, Eliot emphasized the existence of tradition and advocated the impersonal literary creation attaching to tradition. He thought that the writers'creativeness stemmed from the long tradition of literary system. The literary creation in fact was the impersonal process during which the subject consciously avoided his personality and returned to the tradition. On the one hand, "impersonal"creation advocated attaching to tradition. This not only requires the writer to enhance the awareness of traditional history and to be impersonal but also needs writers to abolish personality and act as the media composing of various feelings to achieve the aim of refining coarse personal feelings into eternal human feelings which contains extraordinary wisdom. On the other hand, "impersonal"creation advocated personal innovation within traditional style and the new works conceived by writers should be in accordance with the existing traditional artistic style with his own peculiarity, that is, his own original creation, for only his original creation could bring fresh vitality to tradition, so that the tradition could be supplemented and could continue its life. At the same time, based on his "Tradition"at the theoretical level Eliot practiced his own verse writing. His poems not only quoted the classics manifesting his efforts returning to tradition but also boldly reformed traditional poetic techniques, successfully introducing symbolism originating from France to English-speaking countries and practicing symbolism with the characteristics of English. To commend Eliot for "the outstanding achievement a forerunner has acquired in modern poetry", in 1948 Swedish Academy awarded him Nobel Prize for Literature. The literary achievement of Eliot is worldwide. His poetics and poems affected not only the western countries but also China located far away. In the 1930s'and 1940s', enthusiastic study on Eliot in Chinese literary circle appeared. Chinese people began to translate and study his literary theories and his poems and modeled on his theories and poems to construct Chinese literary theory and verse creation. Even at present, Eliot's poetics returning to "Tradition"still has important and enlightening significance for us in solving the difficulties in the construction of literary theory.