Time And Consciousness In The Poetry Of T.S.Eliot

In recent years there has been a revival of T. S. Eliot's scholarship both at home and abroad. The publication of Eliot's manuscripts and his PhD dissertation has shed valuable new light upon Eliot studies. The theme of time and its function in Eliot's poetry has been discussed by scholars such as Nancy K. Gish in Time in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot and others, but the significance of consciousness and the theme of the conflict between time and consciousness have seldom been discussed by academics around the world. This dissertation is an attempt to reveal how Eliot formed his notions of time and consciousness, what the relationships between time and consciousness are, and what functions these concepts serve in Eliot's poetry through the analysis of his major poems,"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock","Portrait of a Lady","Gerontion", The Waste Land and Four Quartets.The Introduction sets forth, chapter by chapter, the structure and the main points to be made in this dissertation.Chapter One provides ample evidence for the formation and development of Eliot's concepts of time and consciousness in his poetry, showing that Eliot's philosophical studies, especially his studies of Bergson and Bradley, deeply influenced and enriched his poetry and criticism. Bradley's philosophical ideas, especially those regarding the relationship between subject and object in his Appearance and Reality, as well as Bergson's answers to the perennial philosophical questions of"What is real?","How do we know reality?",and"What is memory?"both in Time and Free Will and Introduction to Metaphysics, helped to concretize Eliot's conception of time and consciousness and provided the basis for incorporating the ideas into his poetry. They also equipped Eliot not only to understand but to help provide the means of healing and reintegrating the alienated, chaotic and disintegrating state of Western civilization.Chapter Two, taking time and consciousness as the index of Eliot's earlier poetry,...