Myth and Melos in Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
- Issue:
- УДК / UDK: 821.111.0
- DOI:
- EDN:
- Abstract:
The paper is dedicated to the poem by T.S. Eliot Four Quartets (1943), it examines its artistic specificity, its poetic and musical peculiarities with their complex symbolic subtext and a whole layer of meanings. The organizing principle of the Four Quartets is the synthesis of myth and melos. The poem contains features “borrowed” from music so that the “musical energy” (melos) that is not yet a melody finds a specific poetic embodiment. Built on the principles of musical poetics, Eliot's poem contains various artistic images that alternate and combine according to the principle of the development of musical themes (like Wagner's leitmotifs) and their meaning does not remain the same, but is changing. Another similarity between the poem and a musical work is its timeless character: a full perception of the musical integrity of Four Quartets is achieved after repeated reading of the text, simultaneous experience of what has already been read and what has yet to be read — and this is like listening to a symphony, the desire to perceive it in its entirety, beyond time. The myth, in contrast to the quite specific mythologems of The Waste Land, in Four Quartets and its melodiousness, does not have any subject or plot even in its infancy and is rather represented by abstract, general ideas and archetypes. The article analyzes the archetypes and elementary symbols of Four Quartets (circle, square, quaternity, intersecting lines, etc.) and reveals their significance. The paper demonstrates that the imagery of Four Quartets is also based on Eliot's personal impressions, which merge with many “intellectual” associations and, refracting in the mythopoetic structure of the poem, turn into general, universal symbols.
- Keywords: T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, myth, melos, archetypes, musical poetics, mythopoetic structure, The Waste Land.
- For citation:
Kobakhidze, Temur. “Myth and Melos in Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot.” Literature of the Americas, no. 13 (2022): 177 –206. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2022-13-177-206
- References:
Aldritt 1978 — Aldritt, Keith. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Poetry as Chamber Music. London: Woburn Press, 1978.
Averintsev 1973 — Averintsev, Sergei. “Analiticheskaia psikhologiia K.G. Iunga i zakonomernosti tvorcheskoi fantazii” [“C.G. Jung’s Analytical Psychology and the Laws of Creative Fantasy”]. Voprosy literatury, no. 3 (1973): 113–143. (In Russ.)
Bergsten 1960 — Bergsten, Staffan. Time and Eternity. A Study in the Structure of “Four Quartets”. Stockholm: Scandinavian University Books, 1960.
Druskin 1974 — Druskin, Michael. Igor' Stravinskii. Lichnost', tvorchestvo, vzgliady [ Igor Stravinskii. Person, Works, Views]. Moscow; Leningrad: Sovetskii kompozitor Publ., 1974. (In Russ.)
Eliot 1972 — Eliot, T.S. The Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot. Edited by F. Kermode. London: Faber, 1972.
Feder 1971 — Feder, Lillian. Ancient Myth and Modern Poetry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.
Freed 1962 — Freed, Lewis. T.S. Eliot: Aesthetics and History. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1962.
Frye 1963 — Frye, Northrop. T.S. Eliot. Edinburg; London: Oliver and Boyd, 1963.
George 1962 — George, Arapura. T.S. Eliot. His Mind and Art. Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962.
Gurevich 1972 — Gurevich, Aron. Kategorii srednevekovoi kul'tury [Categorie of the Medieval Culture]. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ., 1972. (In Russ.)
Humphreys 1960 — Humphreys, Christmas. Buddhism. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1960.
Jayasuriya 1963 — Jayasuriya, W.F. The Psychology and Philosophy of Buddhism. Colombo: Y.M.B.A. Press, 1963.
Karalashvili 1980 — Karalashvili, Revaz. Problemy Tvorchestva Germana Gesse [ Works by Hermann Hesse]. Tbilisi: Tbilisi State University Press, 1980. (In Russ.)
Kurt 1931 — Kurt, Ernst. Osnovy linearnogo konrtrapunkta. Melodicheskaia polifoniia Bakha [Fundamentals of Linear Counterpoint. Bach Melodic Polyphony]. Moscow: Muzgiz Publ., 1931. (In Russ.)
Levaia 1988 — Levaia, Tamara. “Muzykal'naia problematika v Doktore Faustuse Tomasa Manna” [“Problems of Music in Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus”]. In Sovremennoe zapadnoe iskusstvo. XX vek. Problemy kompleksnogo izucheniia [Contemporary western Art, XX century. Problems of Complex Studies], 37–70. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1988. (In Russ.)
Levi-Stross 1972 — Levi-Stross, Clod. “Iz knigi Mifologichnye. I. Syroe i varenoe” [“From the Book Mythologiques. I. Le Cru et le cuit”]. In Semiotika i iskusstvo metriia [Semiotics and Artmetry], edited by Iu.M. Lotman, V.M. Petrov, 25–49. Moscow: Mir Publ., 1972. (In Russ.)
Losev 1927 — Losev, Alexei. Muzyka kak predmet logiki [Music as an Object of Logic]. Moscow: s.n., 1927. (In Russ.)
Losev 1963 — Losev, Alexei. Istoriia antichnoi estetiki [ History of Antique Aesthetics]. Moscow: Vysshaia shkola Publ., 1963. (In Russ.)
Losev 1969 — Losev, Alexei. “Problema Rikharda Vagnera v proshlom i nastoiashchem” [“The Problem of Richard Wagner in the Past and Present”]. Voprosy estetiki [Questions of Aesthetics], no. 8 (1969): 67–196. (In Russ.)
Matthiessen 1959 — Matthiessen, Francis Otto. The Achievement of T.S. Eliot. An Essay on the Nature of poetry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Radkhakrishnan 1956 — Radkhakrishnan, Sarvepalli. Indiiskaia filosofiia [Hindu Philosophy]. Vol. 1. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo inostrannoi literatury Publ., 1956. (In Russ.)
Rees 1974 — Rees, Thomas R. The Technique of T.S. Eliot, A Study in the Concentration of Meaning in Eliot’s Poetry. Hague: De Gruyter Mouton, 1974.
Shakhnazarova 1975 — Shakhnazarova, Nona. Problemy muzykal'noi estetiki v teoreticheskikh trudakh Stravinskogo, Shenberga, Khindemita [Problems of Musical Aesthetics in the Theoretical Works of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Hindemith]. Moscow: Sovetskii kompozitor Publ., 1975. (In Russ.)
Smith 1966 — Smith, Grover Cleveland. T.S. Eliot’ s Poetry and Plays. A Study in Sources and Meaning. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
TSE 1969 — T.S. Eliot. Four Quartets. A Casebook. Edited by B. Bergonzi. London: Macmillan, 1969.
Vetter 1961 — Vetter, Walter. Mythos-Melos-Musica. Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Musikgeschichte, zweite Folge. Leipzig: Deutscher Vlg für Musik, 1961.
Zhirmunskii 1977 — Zhirmunskii, Viktor. Teoriia literatury. Poetika. Stilistika. [Literary Theory. Poetics. Stylistics]. Leniingrad: Nauka Publ., 1977. (In Russ.)
