The last century saw three great poets: Yeats, Eliot, and Stevens. They each had created new poems different from the previous ones. The current topic finds Eliot most discordant from the other two, who has started from Romantic poetics. By "Romantic" I mean that the poet grew out of Romantic poetics and/or is Romantic temperamentally. In Eliot's case, because of his stance on Romanticism and his educational background, unfortunately, both poets and scholars have been blinded to the fact that Eliot is deeply Romantic, stylistically and temperamentally. Read any portion of any poem by Eliot; it is there in the very poem, such as "Prufrock." It indeed is a good poem, witty and modern. But the drawback with Eliot is he is exclusive, thus the poetic range is limited. Compared with him, Stevens is a pure Romantic, who profoundly succeeds in renewing Romantic poetics in modern times, as evidenced in "Sunday Morning." Which is the counterpoint to Milton's "Paradise Lost." Of course, in terms of poetic gestures. Yeats is, compared with Eliot and Stevens, unique. He is against science, and goes back to myths and folklore and man. His "Long-legged Fly" is the epitome of his great poetics, a victory over the materialistic society of last century. Still, it is hard to understand how he could go over what seems to have been an impossible barrier, with such an outmoded thing, as mysticism, mythology, Romanticism, that all thought dead.
본 연구는 엘리엇의 J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가의 심리적 독백을 푸코의 파레시아 개념으로 접근하여 인류보편적인 도덕적 삶의 양태를 포착하려한다. 진실에 대하여 실천적으로 접근한 푸코의 파레시아는 자 기의식 지도라는 측면에서 자기비판의 개념을 포함한다. 특히 나카야마겐은 기독교 역사에서 파레시아가 가지는 의미로 중간적인 로고스적 인 간상을 추구하게 한다고 지적한다. 즉 기독교가 초월적 사랑을 이상적 으로 추구하지만, 현실적으로 차선의 방안으로 윤리적인 결혼을 제시하곤 했다. 이와 같은 측면에서 엘리엇의 J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가 는 극단적인 두 사랑, 이드와 초자아개념을 형이상학적 기상과 같이 결 합하고, 양자 사이의 윤리적 삶의 양태를 고민하게 한다. 따라서 본 연구는 엘리엇의 심리적 독백을 사고실험으로 간주하고, 그가 인간의 도 덕적 삶의 한 양태로 극단적 개념 사이에서 끊임없이 진실을 추구하는 것임을 규명한다.
본 논문의 목적은 모더니즘의 최초시라고 평가받고 있는 「J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가」(1915)에 나타난 엘리엇의 다양한 모더니즘 기교를 천착하는 것이다. 보들레르의 모더니티 개념에서 구축된 모더니즘의 대 표 시인 엘리엇의 시적 기교는 인간의 자아를 성적 본능인 이드, 자아, 초자아로 구분한 프로이트의 정신분석학과 제임스의 “의식의 흐름”의 영향으로 낭만주의나 빅토리아조 시인들의 기교와 확연히 다르다. 엘리엇은 신중하고 우유부단한 화자 프루프록의 내적 독백, 즉 백일몽을 통하여 무의식 속에서 관능적인 여인들과의 조우 단절을 묘사함으로써 모더니즘의 한 주제인 도시 생활 속의 “소외”(疏外)를 표출하고 있다. 아 울러 시인은 베르그송 시간관의 영향으로 기계적인 “시계 시간”보다 프루프록 의식의 “심리 시간”을 수월하게 표출하고 있다. 또한 엘리엇의 모더니즘 기교는 독특한 은유, 직유, 환유, 상징 그리고 형이상시인들의 기상(奇想)보다 더 복잡한 기상의 사용에서 명백히 드러난다. 결론적으로, 화자의 망설이는 (무)의식 또는 잠재의식을 투사하고 있는 엘리엇의 「J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가」는 확실히 그의 전통적인 하버드 습작시와 모더니즘 대표시 황무지 사이의 간극을 연결하는 혁신적인 모더니즘 최초의 시이다.
「J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가」에서 나타나는 시적 화자의 불안의 기분은 엘리엇의 초기시에 보여주는 다른 여러 감정들처럼 현대인들의 실존에 대한 이해와 밀접하게 맞물려 있다. 본 논문에서는 시적 화자의 불안의 감정을 하이데거의 초기 사상에서 비중 있게 다뤄진 불안의 의미와 함께 분석함으로써, 불안의 실존론적 의미에 주목하고자 한다. 실존론적 의미에서 프루프록의 불안은 세계를 이해하고 자신의 존재를 깨 닫게 되는 기분이다. 불안은 자기를 상실한 채 비본래적으로 살아가는 시적 화자에게, 섬뜩함으로부터 존재를 알려오며 양심의 목소리를 통해 본래적인 삶의 가능성을 개시하는 기분이라고 할 수 있다. 엘리엇은 프루프록의 불안을 통해 어둡고 절망적인 현대사회를 진단하기 보다는 불안을 통해 오히려 자기를 상실한 현대인들의 실존 회복의 가능성을 모색하고 있다고 볼 수 있다. 불안은 하이데거의 초기 사상에 해당하는 존재와 시간과 형이상학이란 무엇인가? 에서 “무”와의 관련성을 가지고 깊이 있게 사유되고 있다. 불안과 불안이 드러내는 무의 성격은 「프루프록」에서 시적화자의 불안과 불안이 가져다주는 “압도적인 문제” 를 해석하는 바탕이 된다.
『J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가 』에서 화자 프루프록은 상징계의 주체 이자 욕망의 결핍을 느끼는 현대인의 전형, 탈주를 꿈꾸는 자이다. 그는 타인/대타자의 욕망에 의해 소외되어 있는 한, 진정한 자신, 진정한 주 체로 태어나지 못했을 것이다. 주체가 상징계에 들어갈 때 존재는 타자 적 이미지와 언어에 의해 소외된다. 그리고 주체탄생이란 소외를 댓가 로 지불하여 얻을 수 있기 때문이다. 여기서 미켈란젤로, 여인, 인어는 프루프록의 주체에 대응되는 대타자로서 시니피앙의 연쇄를 일으키는 원인이다. 엘리엇은 억압된 인간의 욕망이 끊임없이 무의식의 구멍/환상 으로 출몰하여 미끄러지는 상징계의 전형적인 구조를 보여준다. 이때 되돌아오는 것은 대상 a와 실재계로서, 이들은 환상적 형태로 상징계에 침투하였다. 『J. 알프레드 프루프록의 연가』 는 값싼 식당과 호텔, 여인 들의 방, 바닷가, 바다 소녀의 방의 배경을 따라, 노란 안개, 향기, 베개, 복숭아, 인어의 노래 등으로 재현되는 대상 a등을 소개한다. 무엇보다도 이 시는 시적화자/주체가 대상 a를 통하여 상징계의 틈을 발견하고, 자 신의 쾌락을 추구하여, 시니피앙에 의하여 자신을 역설적으로 드러내는 언술행위의 주체/진정한 주체의 해방을 이루는 상징계의 연쇄작용을 효 율적으로 제안하고 있다.
본 논문의 주 목적은 「J. 알프레드 프루프록의 사랑 노래」에 나타 난 근대성과 시간의 의제가 지닌 중요성을 탐구하는 것이다. 산업화 와 도시화의 결과로 인간소외 현상이 심화되는 후기 근대의 도시로 부터 탈주하고자 하는 프루프록은 대립적인 인간관계가 해소된 마법 화된 시공간을 꿈꾼다. ‘상상적인 동일시’를 통해 구성된 이 세계는 기본적으로 여성적인 영역으로, 방안의 여인들로 대표되는 이 공간 에서는 교감과 친밀성을 바탕으로 하는 인간관계가 유지되고 있다. 또한 프루프록은 동일한 것의 반복을 특징으로 하는 근대의 일상적 시간을 특이성과 우발성이 충만한 차이의 시간으로 대체하고자 한 다. 하지만, 프루프록을 표준화하고 사물화하는 근대성의 시선의 회 귀와 더불어 그는 인간의 시간이 중단된 신화적 세계에 감금되며, 이것은 사회적 존재로서의 프루프록의 상징적 죽음을 의미한다.
본 논문은 에즈러 파운드의 「휴 셀윈 모벌리」와 엘리엇의 「제이 알 프레드 프루프록」에 관한 글이다. 엘리엇의 「프루프록」이 1915년, 파운 드의 「모벌리」가 1920년에 발표되었고 이들은 엘리엇과 파운드의 퍼소 나들이다. 궁극적으로 이들 시인들이 추구한 것은 영웅이지만, 그들이 제시한 인물들은 반영웅(anti-hero)으로 하루의 일상을 커피 스푼으로 재 는 소심한 사내들이다. 친밀했던 두 시인의 서간을 모아 출판된 책도 있지만, 파운드와 엘리엇을 한데 걸어 매는 연결고리는 문학적 모더니 즘의 대표적인 증상중의 하나인 여성혐오(misogyny)이고 파운드가 애써 부인하지만, 그들 각자의 퍼소나들은 그것들을 지어낸 시인들과 결부되 어 있다. 여성혐오라는 관점에서 볼 때, 일차대전 반전시이기도 한 파운 드의 「모벌리」와 엘리엇의 「프루프록」은 크리스테바의 비천(abject mother) 을 나타내고, 실질적으로 파운드와 엘리엇은 보통 그들의 후원자로 통 칭되는 남근적 어머니(phallic mother) 앞에서 힘을 잃고 위축된다.
Eliot was impressed with Charles Baudelaire’s technical mastery and particularly with his employment of symbolic imagery as a means of representing a spiritual or emotional state of modern man. This paper makes it clear that Baudelaire’s decadent metropolitan settings appear in Eliot’s early poetry including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” This paper argues that Eliot not merely presents the imagery of the sordid common life of a metropolis but attempts to transform such imagery to disclose the symbolic landscape in the protagonist’s mind. Eliot recalls from his past life memory and daily observations concrete physical equivalents for intangible feelings of modern humans. This paper shows how all the scenery of the poem, indoor and outdoor, is transferred to the psychological landscape of Prufrock himself. And this paper also argues that the symbolist device of objective correlative, then, in Eliot’s hands, renders the complexity of modern human experience as well.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Portrait of a Lady,” two major works of T. S. Eliot’s early poems, have been regarded as a kind of ramatic monologues. Many critics indicated that Eliot’s use of dramatic monologue was different from Victorian poets’, so they called Eliot’s dramatic monologues “interior monologues” or “psychologues.” However, some critics like Won-Chung Kim insisted that Eliot’s and Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues shared some characteristics by comparing their masterpieces, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “My Last Duchess.” In this paper, my premise is that Eliot’s dramatic monologues are different from Victorian poets’ like Browning’s because I think that Eliot changed the technique of dramatic monologue to reflect the spirit of his age, that is, the beginning of the 20th century. In the early 20th century, many writers including Eliot thought that the self is illogical and split, and claimed that they should focus on the human consciousness and try to find the method to express it. In his early poems, Eliot expressed the speakers’ consciousness that was divided. Some critics has also indicated that the speakers of Eliot’ early poems have self-conscious character caused by the split self. To create this character of the speakers, I think, Eliot adapted the technique of dramatic monologue. While the traditional dramatic monologues focus on showing the speakers’ values, Eliot’s show the conflict of the speakers’ doubling self that produces the effect of irony. The speakers’ doubling self consists of the superficial and the fundamental self. One represents the self that tries to conform to the life style of the bourgeois world and is very concerned about people’s judgment. The other represents the self that longs for something higher, more emotional and spiritual. When this doubling self collides with each other and causes conflict, the speaker observes himself in a dramatic way, that is, as a object. Then, the speaker returns to his daily life again.
The aim of this paper is threefold. First, this study introduces the context of objectivity in modernist poetry, especially Moore’s objectivity and Williams’s objectivity. Second, it differentiates T. S. Eliot’s objectivity from their objectivity. In doing so, this paper analyzes the poems in Prufrock and Other Observations according to the different type of observation and the different type of persona. The poetics of observation in Eliot’s Prufrock and Other Observations is dramatic, psychological, and complex. His manner of observation is more inward looking than Moore’s, and his poetics of exploring urban reality is more dramatic and psychological than Williams’s. Third, this paper intends to rescue Eliot from Williams’s harsh criticism against him. From Williams’s point of view, Eliot’s poetry represents the “old” world spirit. However, Eliot’s seemingly traditional way of dealing with the world is so resilient that we can appreciate his work even after the age of Eliot and across geographical borders.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is one of the most successful early poems of T. S. Eliot. In this poem Eliot expresses the sordid and waste world which shows no possibility of salvation. The method of salvation or the salvation itself is symbolized as the “overwhelming question”. The question of salvation is overwhelming not only because the speaker of this poem cannot deal with it properly but also it cannot be solved in this waste world. The world is sordid, turbulent and waste, and human beings in this world are alienated. Eliot’s sense of alienation has its root in his early life, social activities, leaving America and acquiring British citizenship. This alienation is expressed in this poem as the impossibility of expressing his own thoughts and communicating with the women. The speaker even wishes to lead an animal life. The speaker’s wish to be lower animals indicates that the world is in the lowest level of existence. The speaker’s wish to save the world is expressed as the action of going to the women. What the speaker aspires is the true communication with the women not only on the physical level but also on the spiritual level. The communication will put an end to the alienation and save this world from its sordid and waste situation. Though the speaker’s wish isn’t fulfilled, we understand the “overwhelming question” is connected with the salvation of the world.
This paper is to show how properly the contagious concepts stemmed from Deleuze can be applied to literary text, even if Deleuzean reading that has flooded as yet home or abroad is hard to practice. However, we always feel it troublesome that the challenge is so hard and even fatuous in the sense that Deleuze’s texts are inclined to decline to be grasped by readers. Moreover, even the poem of T. S. Eliot’s also would get out of reader’ obsessional desire to ‘territorialize’ the poem. In the dilemma, we find a aphorism of Lacan’s as a western high monk: we can’t read all texts of an author and can’t grasp all of his/her identity even if he/she has scoured all of his/her texts thoroughly. Thus what we know is no less than broken knowledge, so someone who argues that he/she is a know-all must be totalitarian or paranoiac. Deleuzean reading can be practiced in view of not ‘systematic reading’ but ‘affective reading.’ The former chases after comprehensive ideas as if readers would be gods in the Olympus mount, but the latter enjoys ‘intensity’ or velocity of each part composing of text as asserted by Spinoza. After passing through this poem, the trend of ‘deterritorialization’ is perceived just like a form of melody, ‘rondo,’ in which main melody is recurring with marginal variations intervened every movement and at last reduced to ultimate themes which can be summarized such as state of thought without image, enlightenment and revision. To reach the poetic truth, Eliot mobilizes a collage of intertextual images such as a gruesome world of Dante’s hell to which ‘line of flight’ or ‘singularity’ as death takes human in which confession makes possible atonement or salvation. “a patient etherized” means lethargic being castrated by the norm or value of community and paralyzed by the conventional images in ‘socius’ such as primitive, despotic and capitalistic state. “yellow fog” seems to veil falsehood of reality, but indicates difficulty of rational judgement and “time” as ‘abstract machine’ of self-contradiction frees oneself from oneself with the same identity made up of present(‘chronos’), past and future(‘aion’) articulated only by human as subject of thought. Ego riding on timetable is determined to be confined in routine of life, which means that we must take off each conventional mask. Thus “ragged claws” cut causation as ‘rigid line’ of world and Apostle John and “Lazarus” as saints undergo metamorphosis of death or rebirth in that the one was martyred and the other returned from across Lethe of oblivion as Zarathustra would face against his fate. “the eternal Footman” functions as self-disciplined subject succeeding to regime or prisoner contained in ‘panopticon.’ “Hamlet” and “the Fool” mean that the former as ‘war machine’ tries to subvert ‘the State apparatus’ or ‘molar aggregates,’ and the latter denies despotic ‘normalization’ or generalization. Contrary to the mundane situation, “mermaids” and “sea-girls” stand for becoming-imperceptible through ‘decoded flow’ happening when the poetic narrator fed up with stuffed images drowns himself as moving ‘phenotext’(the signifying system) to ‘genotext’(not reducible to the language system), and awakes himself in the revision of Things. At last Eliot completes “the love song” with the esoteric tree diagram erasing image by image, and shows us the terrible road to enlightenment.
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.
The technique of dramatic monologue which affords writers an objective and ironic distance from the speaker was a useful method to Robert Browning and T. S. Eliot who tried to overcome the problem of excessive pursuit of subjective vision of the Romantic poets, their immediate predecessors. In “The Metaphysical Poets,” Eliot denies any direct influence from and continuity with the Romantic and Victorian poets and finds his inspiration in the works of Metaphysical poets and French Symbolist poets. In a review on John Middleton Murry's Cinnamon and Angelica, however, he recommends Browning to the modern poets, including himself, as a pattern to follow. Eliot's contradictory attitude toward Browning stems, I think, from the fact that his ambition to become a modern poet of the Twentieth Century sometimes overshadowed his acknowledgement of Browning as one of his masters. But it is hardly possible to deny that he knew Browning very well and his early works show a close affinity to the works of Browning, more than those of any other poet. “My Last Duchess,” Browning's masterpiece of dramatic monologue, and Eliot's “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” share many characteristics; both are written in dramatic monologue, and both are studies of the latent violence and danger of solipsistic self-love. Both Browning's Duke and Eliot's Prufrock are paranoiacs who are imprisoned within their sick self-consciousness. They suffer from their impossible desire for woman, and they reveal their hidden violent nature when their desire for woman is thwarted. As the Duke shows his sadistic character when he transforms his Duchess who was beyond his control into an artifact, the same violence of Prufrock turns against himself and becomes a masochistic one. In this sense Prufrock can be regarded as a modern Duke of Browning, who wallows in the mire of “etherized” self-consciousness. The paranoiac self-consciousness proves itself a hell both to the Duke and Prufrock. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a good example in which Eliot faithfully followed his own advice to the modern poets, that is “to distill the dramatic essences [of Browning], if we can, and infuse them into some other liquor.”