Between Fire and Fire: T . S . E liot's T he W aste L and
Francesca Bugliani Knox
The Heythrop Journal December 5, 2014 DOI: 10.1111/heyj.12240 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that, contrary to critics like Helen Gardner who claim The Waste Land defies coherent interpretation because its connections are of feeling rather than logic, the poem can be interpreted in a traditional sense that Eliot would have recognized. |
Abstract
Desolatione desolata est omnis terra Quia nullus est qui recogit corde Even traditionally minded critics have maintained that The Waste Land defies a coherent interpretation. ‘No critic,’ Helen Gardner wrote, ‘can provide them [i.e. readers] with a magic thread to take them through the labyrinth. Its connections are not connections of logic, but connections of feeling, often of violent reactions of feeling’ (Gardner 19). Plausible though this may seem, there are reasons to doubt interpretations of this kind. The Waste Land can be interpreted, and by interpreted I mean ‘interpreted’ in a traditional sense, one that Eliot would have recognized (The Frontiers of Criticism 11, 15).