Modernism and Muddle: Religious Implications of T. S. Eliot’s Use of the Term

Abstract

Around the year 1930, as noted by Ronald Schuchard, T. S. Eliot moved beyond the opposition of classicism and romanticism, replacing it with a juxtaposition of orthodoxy and modernism. However, as Eliot’s recently published letters and prose suggest, Eliot created yet another contrariety by using these terms from 1926 onwards to imply the mismatch between his classicism and “modernism.” Indeed, in his correspondence, reports, reviews, commentaries and records of spoken addresses written between 1926 and 1933, the references to modernism – or perhaps just the ways in which he makes use of the term – range from condescending to contemptuous. This paper, in trying to outline Eliot’s wrestling with the term modernism between 1926 and 1933 – a narrative inferred from his side remarks, personal comments and little jibes – shows that to T. S. Eliot classicism was essentially an antidote to modernism. It also tries to demonstrate that, at the time, Eliot used the word modernism, meaning not only modernism in literature but also (predominantly, perhaps) modernist theology.

Keywords

• T. S. Eliot
• theological modernisms
• literary modernism
• classicism
• Eliot’s letters
• Eliot’s reviews