T. S. Eliot and Ideology [Hardcover]

Investigates the effect of politics on the work of T. S. Eliot, particularly the influence of French reactionary thinking.Asher investigates the effect of politics on the work of T. S. Eliot, particularly the influence of French reactionary thinking. The result is a re-appraisal of Eliot's view of literary history and theory, and new readings of major poems and plays. Asher also discusses how Eliot's ideology altered the study of literature for subsequent generations of critics.Asher investigates the effect of politics on the work of T. S. Eliot, particularly the influence of French reactionary thinking. The result is a re-appraisal of Eliot's view of literary history and theory, and new readings of major poems and plays. Asher also discusses how Eliot's ideology altered the study of literature for subsequent generations of critics.This book demonstrates the effect of politics on the work of T.S. Eliot, with particular emphasis on the influences of French reactionary thinking. Kenneth Asher argues that this political inheritance provided the intellectual framework Eliot employed throughout his career. The focus of this political dimension separates the book from previous studies of Eliot. The result is a reestimation of Eliot's view of literary history and literary theory, and new appraisals of several major poems and plays.1. Historical background; 2. The French connection; 3. Orthodoxy and heresy; 4. Architect of a Christian order; 5. Visions and revisions; 6. Eliot and the new criticism; Conclusion; Notes; Index. ...an astute, well-written account of a midwesterner's strange ideological journey through the Old World. Christopher Clausen, American Literature