Conflicts in Consciousness: T. S. ELIOT'S POETRY AND CRITICISM

by David Spurr

From the inner sleeve of "Conflicts in Consciousness" - "Conflicts in Consciousness" challenges the tradition that views Eliot's work as elements of a supremely ordered and unified imagination. Spurr, to the contrary, argues that Eliot's major poems and critical essays reflect an essentially unresolved war between the poet's intellect and intuition.Spurr's primary achievement is to redefine Eliot's poetic evolution as a series of attempts to conquer, discredit or assimilate the irrational forces of his visionary imagination. He traces this obsession through Eliot's major "Gerontion," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," The Waste Land," "The Hollow Men," "Ash Wednesday," "Four Quartets," and the essays.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

David Spurr writes on modern English and French literature, with a particular interest in the relations between literature and the cultural and philosophical contexts of modernity. He is a Fellow of the English Association of the United Kingdom and a member of the governing boards of the Zurich James Joyce Foundation and the Société de Lecture de Genève.