1) T.S. Eliot's 1919 essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent" discusses his view of the relationship between poets and the literary tradition that preceded them. 2) Eliot argues that a poet's mind acts as a catalyst that synthesizes feelings and emotions into an artistic creation, emerging from the process unaffected. For Eliot, successful poetry achieves an impersonal form of expression that exists independently of its poet. 3) According to Eliot, a poet must be conscious of both the present and past literary traditions in order to create new works that alter how the past is understood, representing a fusion of different time periods. The progress of the artist involves a continual self-sacrif

1. 1
T.S.ELIOT
Mustheena . K
B.ED ENGLISH
KSTC

2. TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL
TALENT
T.S.ELIOT

3. Three parts of this essay- Tradition and individual talentThree parts of this essay- Tradition and individual talent
TRADITION
AND
INDIVIDUAL
TALENT
The concept of
tradition
The concept of
tradition
The concept of
tradition

4. THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT
(1888 -1965 )
British poet - playwright – essayist –
publisher – social and literary critic.
One of the twentieth century’s major poet .
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

5. CONTRIBUTIONS :
Objective Correlation
Theory of Impersonality
Concept of Tradition
Disassociation of sensibility
ESSAYS :
Traditional and Individual Talent (1919)
 Hamlet and His Problems (1920)
 Metaphysical Poets (1921)
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

6. Introduction :
• “Tradition and Individual Talent ” (1919) is an essay
written by the poet and literary critic T. S. Eliot.
• The essay was first published in ‘The Egoist ’ (1919) and
later in Eliot’s first book of criticism , “The Sacred Wood
”(1920).
• Tradition and Individual Talent is one of the more well
known work that Eliot produced in his critic capacity .
• It formulates Eliot’s influential conception of the
relationship between the poet and the literary tradition
which proceeds him .
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

7. TRADITIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL TALENTTRADITIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT (1919)
This essay is divided into three parts . That are :
Part one : The Concept of “ Tradition ”
Part two : The Theory of Impersonal Poetry
Part three : The Conclusion or Summing up.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

8. The Concept of “Tradition” :
 Eliot presents his conception of tradition and the definition of poet and
poetry in relation to it.
 For Eliot ,the term “tradition” is imbued with a special and complex
character.
 It represents a “simultaneous order” , by which Eliot means a historical
timelessness – a fusion of past and present , and at the same time , a
sense of present temporality.
 Eliot claims that this “historical sense” is not only a resemblance of
traditional works but an awareness and understanding of their relation
to his poetry.
 The historical sense involves a perception , not only the pastness of
past , but of its presence.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

9.  The difference between present and past is that , the conscious
present is an awareness of the past in a way and to an extent which the
past’s awareness of itself cannot show.
 When a poet engages in a new work he realizes an aesthetic “ideal
order” , as it has been established by the literary tradition that has
come before him.
 As such , the act of artistic creation does not take place in a vacuum.
 The inclusion of new work alters the way in which the past is seen ,
elements of past that are noted and realized.
 The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice , a continual
extinction of personality.
 This leads to Eliot’s so called “Impersonality Theory” of poetry.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

10. The Theory of Impersonal Poetry:
 Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the
poet but upon the poetry.
 Eliot compares the poet’s mind to a catalyst ,
- in which the reactants are feelings and emotion that are
synthesized to create an artistic image that captures these same
feelings and emotion.
- While the mind of poet is necessary for production , it emerges
unaffected by the process.
- The artist stores feelings and emotions , and properly unites
them into a specific combination ,which is the artistic product.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

11.  The poet has, not a “personality” to express , but a particular medium
, which is only a medium and not a personality , in which impression
and experience combine in peculiar and unexpected ways.
- Impression and experiences which are important for the man may
not take place in the poetry , and those which become important in the
poetry , may play quite an ignorable part in the man , the personality.
 It is not his personal emotions , the emotions provoked by particular
event in his life , that the poet is in any way remarkable or interesting .
- His particular emotions may be simple , crude or flat.
- Great work do not express the personal emotion of the poet .
-And the poet does not reveal his own unique and novel emotions,
but rather , by drawing an ordinary ones and channeling them through
the intensity of poetry.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

12.  According to Eliot ‘poetry is not a turning loose of emotion , but an
escape from emotion ; it is not the expression of personality , but an
escape from personality’.
- But ,of course, only those who have personality and emotions
know what it means to want to escape from these things.
 Since , successful poetry is impersonal and , therefore , exists
independent of its poet , it outlives the poet and can incorporate into
the timeless “ideal order” of the “living” literary tradition.
 ‘Talent’ , especially in the arts , is a genius ,that one is born
with. Instead talent is acquired through a careful study of
poetry.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

13. Conclusion :
 Tradition and Individual Talent (1919) is an essay
written by T.S.Eliot.
 According to him , the emotion of art is impersonal.
 And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without
surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done.
 And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless
he lives in what is not merely the present , but the present
moment of past , unless he is conscious , not of what is
dead , but of what is already living.
TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT