T.S. Eliot Materialized: Literal Meaning and Embodied Truth Literal Meaning and Embodied Truth

By Reading T.s. Eliot Literally And Laterally, And Attending To His Intra-textuality, G. Douglas Atkins Challenges The Familiar Notion Of Eliot As Bent On Escaping This World For The Spiritual. This Study Culminates In The Necessary, But Seemingly Impossible, Union Of Reading And Writing, Literature And Commentary.--publisher's Website. Reading Literally, Reading Laterally -- Affirming Life's Newness And Joy:turning And Acceptance In Ash-wednesday -- Falling In Love And Reading Spinoza: Some Forms Of Approach To 'amalgamating Disparate Experience' -- The Gift Half Understood: Incarnation As 'impossible Union, ' Way, And Intersection -- The Word, Words, And The World: Redeeming The Word, Or Some Implications Of Incarnation For Reading And Writing About Literature. G. Douglas Atkins. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Today, nearly 100 years after the publication of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, ' The Sacred Wood, and The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot still suffers from the perception of being difficult to read. In this lively and accessible book, G. Douglas Atkins moves beyond the familiar 'deep' readings and challenges the familiar notion of Eliot as bent on escaping this world for the spiritual world. In line with the poet's own comparative procedures, Atkins reads him literally and laterally, attending to his intra-textuality. By finding meaning in new places, Eliot's commitment to the physical, tangible, sensory world appears beside the spiritual. These original interpretations culminate in the necessary, but seemingly impossible, union of reading, writing, literature, and commentary Front Matter....Pages i-viii Reading Literally, Reading Laterally....Pages 1-17 Turning and Acceptance in Ash-Wednesday: Affirming Life’s Newness and Joy....Pages 18-31 Falling in Love and Reading Spinoza: Some Forms of Approach to “Amalgamating Disparate Experience”....Pages 32-45 The Gift Half Understood: Incarnation as “Impossible Union,” Way, and Intersection....Pages 46-54 The Word, Words, and the World: Redeeming the Word, or Some Implications of Incarnation for Reading and Writing about Literature....Pages 55-62 Back Matter....Pages 63-71