Defense Date
2-26-2021
Graduation Date
Spring 5-7-2021
Availability
One-year Embargo
Submission Type
dissertation
Degree Name
PhD
Department
Philosophy
School
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Committee Chair
Tom Eyers
Committee Member
Jay Lampert
Committee Member
Martin Hägglund
Keywords
T.S. Eliot, History, Tradition, Alienation, Duration, Time, Bergson, Historical Sense
Abstract
In this dissertation, I argue that T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land marshals his account of historical sense as a response to the problem of alienation in modernity. Eliot’s historical sense depends upon an awareness of the endurance of the past, demanding a reorientation to the structure of temporality. I interrogate the temporal ramifications of Eliot’s account, arguing that it resonates with Henri Bergson’s durational theory of time. I ultimately investigate Eliot’s relationship to Bergson, suggesting that Eliot intervenes in the Bergsonian framework by establishing duration as a cultural, rather than individual or ontological, reality.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Ball, T. (2021). Cultivating Eliot's Historical Sense: Eliotic Time and The Waste Land's Response to Alienation (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1960