This thesis draws on a wealth of Parisian dailies and little magazines as well as institutional and literary archives in France, England, and America to reconstruct the intellectual milieu ofT. S. Eliot's student year in France (1910-11). It argues that the French cultural controversies he witnessed that year significantly changed his mind on literary, artistic, spiritual, and political matters. In addition to bringing much needed context to figures already acknowledged as central to Eliot's intellectual development-including Henri Bergson and Charles Maurras-this dissertation offers the first account of his studies at the Sorbonne and of his little-known visit to Henri Matisse's art studio. It makes the case that Eliot left France having reached a remarkable poetic maturity and with many of his critical formulations in place. It contends, moreover, that throughout his life, with each phase of his intellectual development, convictions of literary theorists, philosophers, and cultural commentators from his student-year abroad provided him with significant points of departure. In restoring the framework through which he saw the main figures of his transformative year in France, this dissertation refocuses existing views of Eliot.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:567815 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Morgenstern, John D. |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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