Vericat, Fabio L (2002) from Physics to Metaphysics: Philosophy and Style in the Critical Writings of T
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Vericat, Fabio L (2002) From physics to metaphysics: philosophy and style in the critical writings of T. S. Eliot (1913-1935). PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7445/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] From Physics to Metaphysics: Philosophy and Style in the Critical Writings of T. S. Eliot (1913-1935) by Fabio L. Vericat Submitted for the Ph.D. Degree Department of English Literature University of Glasgow June 2002 ii Abstract This thesis considers Eliot's critical writing from the late 1910s till the mid-1930s, in the light his of PhD thesis - Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley - and a range of unpublished material: T S. Eliot's Philosophical Essays and Notes (1913- 4) in the Hayward Bequest (King's College, Cambridge University); T. S. Eliot's Family Papersin the T. S. Eliot Collection at the Houghton Library (Harvard University); and items from the Harvard University Archives at the Pusey Library. 'Me thesis offers a comprehensive view of Eliot's critical development throughout this important period. It starts by considering The Sacred Wood's ambivalence towards the metaphysical philosophy of F. H. Bradley and Eliot's apparent adoption of a scientific method, under the influence of Bertrand Russell. It will be argued that Eliot uses rhetorical strategies which simultaneously subvert the method he is propounding, and which set the tone for an assessmentof his criticism throughout the 1920s. His indecision, in this period, about the label 'Metaphysical' for some poets of the seventeenth century, reveals the persistence of the philosophical thought he apparently rejects in 1916, when he choosesnot to pursue a career in philosophy in Harvard. This rhetorical tactic achieves its fulfilment in Dante (1929), where Eliot finds a model in the medieval allegorical method and 'philosophical' poetry. Allegory is also examined in connection with the evaluation of Eliot's critical writings themselves to determine, for instance, the figurative dimension of his early scientific vocabulary and uncover metaphysical residues he had explicitly disowned but would later embrace. Finally, it is suggestedthat, the hermeneutics of allegory are historical and it is used here to test the relationship between Eliot's early and later critical writings, that is the early physics and the later metaphysics. iii Contents Introduction 7 ......................................................................................................... Chapter 1: Science Style Philosophy 17 and the of ............................................. Marriage, Literature Philosophy 17 and ................................................................... Vers Libre Problem Philosophy 25 and the with ..................................................... Literary Criticism Scientific Rigour 33 and ............................................................. Science Style: Eliot Hulme 37 as and ...................................................................... Cognition Hulme's 'Notes Language Style . 46 and on and ..................................... Chapter 2: Ghosts and the Cognitive Problem of Impersonality 51 ..................................................................................................... Description Interpretation 52 and ............................................................................. The 'Presentation' Metaphysics 56 of ...................................................................... Contradictions Unreal Objects 60 and ...................................................................... Imaginary Objects, Immediate Experience the 'Correlative . 69 and ....................... Hamlet's Ghost 76 . ................................................................................................... Impersonality the Frontier Metaphysics 81 and of ................................................... The Parody Science Critical Style 89 of as ............................................................. Chapter 3: Eternal History the Cultural Self 96 and .......................................... The Historical Sense the Aesthetics Impersonal Cognition 97 and of .................... The Collective the Individual in Critical History 107 and ...................................... Pragmatism Faith 121 and ....................................................................................... Metaphysical Politics 126 ......................................................................................... Souls Personality 131 and ........................................................................................ Chapter 4: Towards the Articulation of Culture: Personal Experience Metaphysical Definitions 135 and ..................................... Blake and the Personality of Impersonality 136 ....................................................... The Metaphysical Poets Culture 140 and ................................................................ IV The Negative Style of the Dissociation: Dr. Johnson's 'Life Cowley . 148 of ........................................................................ The Clark Lectures Metaphysical Definitions 156 and ............................................ Chapter 5: Philosophy Mysticism 165 and ........................................................... Philosophical Poetry 165 .......................................................................................... Mysticism Self-consciousness 171 and ................................................................... 'Me Mystical Via Positiva Rhetorical Incarnation 177 and ..................................... Richards the Theory Belief 189 and of .................................................................... Chapter 6: Eliot's Allegorical Rhetoric 195 ......................................................... Allegory Rhetorical Strategy 196 as a ...................................................................... The Allegory Poets the Theologians 198 of the and of ............................................ Rhetoric the Sound the Sense the Word 207 and of of ............................................ Figures Prophecy 220 and ....................................................................................... The Failure Discourse: Vita Nuova 'Paradiso. 224 of and ...................................... Chapter 7: Historicism Style Prophecy 236 and as ............................................. Prejudice the Metaphysical Perspective 236 and .................................................... The Sincerity Self-consciousness 239 of ................................................................. The Historical Sense the Present 248 of .................................................................. The Historicism Eliot's Rhetorical Development 255 of ........................................ Bibliography 264 ..................................................................................................... V Acknowledgments I would like, first of all, to thank my supervisor, Dr. Vassiliki Kolocotroni, for everything: her patience and trust, and for makingthis thesispossible in the first place.Her advicehas proved invaluablein all areasand has kept me going at a timeswhen hope was at its lowestebb. have My parents and brothers - GCIidoand Josd- without whose support, love and criticism I would not managedto carry on believing in myself. Susan Halper (Houghton Library, Harvard) and David Ware (Pusey Library, Harvard Archives) for their kind and helpful advice. is There also a number of people who have shared - to various degrees of intensity - the everyday struggle of my research, the memories of whom will always be tied to the completion of this work. A warm thank you to Sarah, Adrian, Colin and Mari, Arne and Dorina, Anna-Maria, specially to Robin and David Pascoe, and in memory of Daniel. La sua voluntadee nostrapace. vi Abbreviations Works by T. S. Eliot: SW TheSacred Wood (1920) (New York: Methuen,1986) FLA For LancelotA ndrewes (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1928) SE SelectedEssays (London: Faber and Faber, 1932) TUPUC The UseofPoetry andthe Useof Criticism (1933) (London:Faber and Faber, 1964) SPh T S. Eliot SelectedProse, John Hayward ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1953) KE Knowledge and Experience (London: Faber & Faber, 1964) Sp SelectedProse of T S. Eliot, FrankKermode ed. (New York: Farrar,Straus & Giroux - HarcourtBrace Jovanovich, 1975) Letters TheLetters of T S. Eliot, Valerie Eliot ed., I (1898-1922),(London: Faber & Faber,1988) VMP The Varieties ofMetaphysical Poetry: The Clark Lectures (at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1926) and The Turnbull Lectures (At the John Hopkins University, 1933), Ronald Schucharded. (London: Faber and Faber, 1993) 7 Introduction This thesis starts from the premise that T. S. Eliot was a serious student of philosophy before turning to literature and it continues by attempting to determine the significance of this background in his development as a literary