Early Twentieth-Century Literature – Modernist Literature In Particular – Is Never More Of Its Time Than When Aspiring To Appear Timeless, Or At Least To Evoke Ideas Of Timelessness. Discuss With Reference To Your Chosen Texts.
The Waste Land asserts its authority as a twentieth century literary monument by way of its acute analysis into a generation and its drearily banal social activity. An incredulous authority haunts the reader throughout the poem, who witnesses the demise of modernity being played out by an array of contemporary situations; marriage, friendship, a drink in a bar; all customary aspects of modern Western civilisation. An instance of this occurs in “III. The Fire Sermon”, as lust’s unforgiving nonchalance overrides an oppressively demeaning subjection of sexual intercourse between a man and woman, ‘Bestows one final patronising kiss, and gropes his way finding the stairs unlit...’ A casual fling of debauchery, something to kill time, without even a slightly insinuating streak of intimacy. The ending of this line requires little assumption but paints a very real image of the naked, used woman resting upon the bed, indifferent to what has happened.
Eliot draws......
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Approximate Word Count: 1772
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)
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