Литература двух Америк (Dec 2016)
A Dandy, Bully, and Mystic: The School of Poetic Play in T.S. Eliot’s Inventions of March Hare
Abstract
The paper deals with some aspects of the early works by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). The object of the research is a collection of poetry, the notebook under the title “The Inventions of the March Hare” (1909-1917). In the paper presented “The Inventions of the March Hare” are considered as a creative laboratory of a young American poet, a collection of texts including the primary elements of the main themes and images of the subsequent poetic and dramatic works, an important commentary to the later works being instrumental in better understanding of Eliot’s mature works. The paper presents a study of history of the creative process, cultural-historical and biographical contexts, the poetics of the title, peculiarities of the composition, the key images and themes, such categories as “musicality” and “dance”, etc. The author of the paper concentrates on three central images-masks: “Pierrot lunaire” (“Suite Clownesque”, etc.), “a King-Bully” (“Columbo and Bolo Verses”) and “a Burnt Dancer” (“Suppressed Complex”, “The Burnt Dancer”). They refer to three important “avatars” of the young poet’s personality (the “dandy”, “bully” and “mystic”) and connect his works to three literary traditions: French symbolism, English literature of nonsense and Dante’s works.
