엘리엇의 후기 비평과 종교

Eliot’s Later Criticism and His Faith

This article is to survey how Eliot’s critical thought has developed since his conversion to Christianity in 1927. ln the Preface to the 1927 second edition of The Sacred Wood we find two noteworthy facts about Eliot’s critical outlook. One is his con-sistent attachment to his earlier critical ideas announced in 1920’s. And the other is his new concern about ‘the relation or poetry to the soul and spiritual life’ and the communication with the reader, which means Eliot was steadily changing his role from a literary leader defending the poet and the poetry to a moralist helping the modern audience. Such a shift resulted in his reconsidering on the function of criticism as well as on the concept of ‘tradition’. In “The Function of Criticism (1923) Eliot defined the critic’s task as the elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste. But in The Use of Poetry d the Use of Criticism(1933), he aserted that the rudi-ments of criticism is to select a good work and reject a bad poem for the reader and that cirtκism should aim at helping the reader with un-derstanding and enjoying the literary works. As a Christian Eliot thought that man is imperfect and limited so that pure, artistic appreciation of a work by a man is an ideal. Here the historical sense of the Iiterary tradition is not enough for a true judgement. A critic needs some extra-literary standard of criticism--the ethical and theological one. In Alter Strange Gods Eliot enlarged his ealier concept of ‘tradition’ by including the Chirsitan orthodoxy. And according to such a standard he criticized several writers blaming them for the unhealthy, sophisticat-ed influence upon the reader. In his lecture “the Frontiers of Criticism 1956) Eliot demanded a critic to be a whole man as well as a technical expert. Eliot said that when a critic has the cirtical ability of ‘self -criticism’ he can get under-standing and sympathy indispensable for the enjoyment of the ‘iterary work. And the Christian virtues, wisdom and humility enable a critic to be a whole man enough to free from his personal prejudices and errors. Through his critical career Eliot tries to set himself an example of a whole man by confessing his faults or prejudices and correcting them whenever a chance was given. 1 believe such humility and frankness as the critic Eliot had can be ascribed to his efforts to be a true Chris-tlan.