본 논문은 엘리엇의 ��에어리얼 시집󰡕중의 한 편인 ｢머리나｣(1930)를 브래들리의 일원론적 인식론의 관점에서 고찰한다. 문학이든 종교든 철학이든 엘리엇의 궁극은 현상의 세계에서의 분열이나 모순을 넘어선 초월적이며 통합적인 세계이다. 엘리엇은 근대의 문명적 정신적 황폐가 데카르트 이래로 서구 정신을 지배해 온 이원론적 인식론에 있다고 진단하고 이의 극복을 시도해왔다. 브래들리의 철학은 물질과 정신, 감성과 이성 그리고 주체와 객체를 하나의 통일체로 보았다는 점에서 일원론적이다. 이 작품의 제사인 세네카의 ��헤라클레스의 광기��와 셰익스피어의 후기극 『페리클레스』의 주제에 근거한 ｢머리나｣의 주제는 극적 인식이다. 엘리엇의 궁극은 일상의 삶에서는 미처 알지 못했던 현상 너머의 세계의 발견을 통한 초월적 경험에 있다. 본 논문은 극적 인식을 통한 초월적 경험을 브래들리의 인식론의 단계에 적용시켜 분석함으로써 이 작품 해석에 새로운 시각을 제공하고 이를 통해 엘리엇 예술의 본질을 드러내고자 한다.

Literature cannot be discussed in a social and cultural vacuum, because it is a culture-bound political construct. This paper investigates the Iimits of the modernist canon, focusing on the relationship between T. S. Eliot and women. Previous formalistic readings of Eliot is이ated the critics and readers from social and biographical concerns, which made it impossible to evaluate him in a balanced viewpoint. In recent decades, as Gibert indicates, "the criteria used to evaluate writers and to understand literary history have shifted from an emphasis on formal elements to an emphasis on ethical and moral ones. The poetics of Eliot, who is considered one of the most influential leading modernists, is closely related to his politics implied in his poetics.’'(191). Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in their essay entitled "Tradition and Female Talent" in No Man ’'s Land, attacks the mas띠Iinity of the modernists, especially Eliot, identifying modernism as masculinism. This paper reviews the re-evaluation of Eliot and of Iiterary modernism by such feminist critics. There can be found some problems and limits in the process of the formation of the modernist canon, which is delicately related with masculinism as indicated by Gilbert and Gubar. However, their presumption that modernism is a product of sexual battle also reveals its Iimits, because it is developed by the use of extreme binary logic. Consequently, this paper, trying to pin down the position of Eliot in the modernist canon, aims to extend the horizon of the understanding of Eliot and modernism as well, by indicating the problems and Iimits in the formation of the modernist canon and also those of the feminist criticism. Its clue lies in Eliot’s essay "Tradition and the lndividual Talent." ’Tradition’ by which Eliot means involves in it the possibility of the revision and innovation as well as the reservation. It is because "The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them." as Eliot emphasized in his essay. When the dynamism implied in the concept of "tradition" is properly understood, the new (the really new) work of art by women writers will be included in tradition, and the feminist criticism will be properly evaluated beyond its misunderstandings and distortions revealed in the blind attack on modemist writers and the modemist canon as well.

How does T. S. Eliot represent women in his poetry? One of the recent arguments puts forward stresses Eliot’s way of describing negative aspects of women in his poetry, while ignoring any good qualities that they may have had. However, a careful study of Eliot’s early poetry shows women torn by the pain of abandonment, betrayal, fear, isolation and loneliness. Furthermore, it is not easy to find the poet’s sympathetic attitude toward women throughout his early poetry. This study aims at investigating the sources of the frustration, failure and unhappiness through the polyphonic voices of man and woman heard in “Portrait of a Lady,” while considering the real sense of Eliot’s attitude toward women. The poem ends in unresolved pain and uncertainty, suffered by men and women alike, which implicitly shows the agony and isolation that people must encounter in human relationships. It is usually apparent when they recognize their own destiny and their confused feelings and longings. In the final analysis, it basically derives from the existential recognition of human beings.

Most of the critics dealing with the subject of how Eliot treats women agree that Eliot's early poetry focuses on the theme of the relationship between men and women. Some critics label him a "misogynist" by focusing on the negative and disparaging comments Eliot made on women. However, a careful examination of his works shows that Eliot's women as well as men are described as unhappy and unfulfilled personae. As Joseph Bentley said, life cannot be happy without a harmonious relation between the sexes. According to Bentley, without self-transcendence, without an awareness of unity, life is impoverished and dismal, which is the pivotal theme of Eliot's poetry, criticism, and philosophical writing. This study discloses how women are represented in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and how the relation of women and men is connected with Eliot's spiritual development.