T.S. Eliot, Poetry, and Earth: The Name of the Lotos Rose (Ecocritical Theory and Practice)

Introduction and Chapter Outline: T.S. Eliot, Nature Poet? -- Chapter 1 Rock Solid Proof, Or: The Matter with Prufrock -- Chapter 2 Dislocation: Dearth, Desert, and Global Warming -- Chapter 3 Location: Mandalic Structure in The Waste Land -- Chapter 4 Immersion: The Authentic Jellyfish, the True Church, and the Hippopotamus -- Chapter 5 Dissolving: The Name of the Lotos Rose -- Chapter 6 Bad Orientalism: Eliot, Edward Said, and the Moha -- Chapter 7 The Tyrannies of Differentiation: Eliot, New Materialism, and "Infinite Semiosis"--Conclusion: Where does the Truth of New Materialism Lie? A Response Based on Eliot's Poetry;"T. S. Eliot enjoyed a profound relationship with Earth. Etienne Terblanche demonstrates that Eliot presents Earth as a process in which humans immerse themselves. The Waste Land and Four Quartets in particular re-locate the modern reader towards mindfulness of Earth's continuation as a process in which one participates. These findings, based on careful reading of the poems, allows the book to venture into ecocritical terrain, focusing on the recent advent of new materialism as a microcosm of the ecocriticism, building on and/or critiquing the work of Edward Said, Jacques Derrida, Gary Snyder, Jane Bennett, and others. Here the argument delves into important questions about the relative crisis within ecocriticism to which Eliot's poetry may well give a certain direction. His poetry uses indirectness and skepticism as avenues into directness and affirmation of earthly being and non-being, speaking to the ways in which new materialism places ecocriticism between fairly drastic material skepticism based on the linguistic and affirmation of earthly agency. Should new materialism continue to clamor towards the linguistic turn? Should it perpetuate the twin legacies of culture studies that avoid actual analysis in response to the real presence of great art and poststructuralist infinite differentiation that undermines not only real poetic presence, but also that of an agentic Earth? The argument seeks answers to these questions from the eco-logos of Eliot's poems, that is, the way in which they orient themselves within Earth's remarkably continuing process. It concludes that his poetic project marks an illuminating instance of the continuing bond between meaningfulness and the primacy of humanity's connections with Earth, providing impetus to ecocriticism's way forward" "T. S. Eliot enjoyed a profound relationship with Earth. Etienne Terblanche demonstrates that Eliot presents Earth as a process in which humans immerse themselves. The Waste Land and Four Quartets in particular re-locate the modern reader towards mindfulness of Earth's continuation as a process in which one participates. These findings, based on careful reading of the poems, allows the book to venture into ecocritical terrain, focusing on the recent advent of new materialism as a microcosm of the ecocriticism, building on and/or critiquing the work of Edward Said, Jacques Derrida, Gary Snyder, Jane Bennett, and others. Here the argument delves into important questions about the relative crisis within ecocriticism to which Eliot's poetry may well give a certain direction. His poetry uses indirectness and skepticism as avenues into directness and affirmation of earthly being and non-being, speaking to the ways in which new materialism places ecocriticism between fairly drastic material skepticism based on the linguistic and affirmation of earthly agency. Should new materialism continue to clamor towards the linguistic turn? Should it perpetuate the twin legacies of culture studies that avoid actual analysis in response to the real presence of great art and poststructuralist infinite differentiation that undermines not only real poetic presence, but also that of an agentic Earth? The argument seeks answers to these questions from the eco-logos of Eliot's poems, that is, the way in which they orient themselves within Earth's remarkably continuing process. It concludes that his poetic project marks an illuminating instance of the continuing bond between meaningfulness and the primacy of humanity's connections with Earth, providing impetus to ecocriticism's way forward"-- Provided by publisher T. S. Eliot enjoyed a profound relationship with Earth. Criticism of his work does not suggest that this exists in his poetic oeuvre. Writing into this gap, Etienne Terblanche demonstrates that Eliot presents Earth as a process in which humans immerse themselves. The Waste Land and Four Quartets in particular re-locate the modern reader towards mindfulness of Earth’s continuation and one’s radical becoming within that process. But what are the potential implications for ecocriticism? Based on its careful reading of the poems from a new material perspective, this book shows how vital it has become for ecocriticism to be skeptical about the extent of its skepticism, to follow instead the twentieth century’s most important poet who, at the end of searing skepticism, finds affirmation of Earth, art, and real presence. This book pursues, for the first time, a comprehensive reading of T. S. Eliot's poetry as it engages with Earth. Finding that such engagement is pervasive in the poet's oeuvre, the book offers a new perspective to critics intrigued by Eliot's project, the modern poetic enterprise, ecocritical developments, and the vital intersections between these fields of reading Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 11 1 Rock Solid Proof 41 2 Dislocation 61 3 Location 77 4 Immersion 101 5 Dissolving 123 6 Bad Orientalism 141 7 The Tyrannies of Differentiation 165 Conclusion 195 Bibliography 215 Index 221 About the Author 231