T. S. 엘리엇의 『성당의 살인』과 『네 개의 사중주』에 대한 아시아적 관점

Some East Asian Perspectives on T. S. Eliot’s Muderder in the Cathedral and Four Quartets.

T. S. Eliot s Murderder in the Cathedral and Four Quartets are generally considered to be representative works of the Western literary canon. What this means is that they can be best read in the context of Western cultural background. What I am proposing here, however, is that even though this is presumably the standard reading procedure of these texts for Western readers there will also be enough room for East Asian readers to read differently. As Paul Ricoeur maintained, diligent readers reach an understanding of an unfamiliar text by making it into a familiar one. In the chorus at the beginning of Murderder in the Cathedral, for example, Eliot leads the reader to participate in the mystic atmosphere of the play. This kind of literary technique, however, has been shunned in modern Western literature because it shows the characteristics of the so-caled pathetic fallacy which has fallen into disuse and consequently vehemently criticized. This is contrary to the East Asian literary practice of correspondence between scenery and feeling. As for reading Four Quartets, Chinese concept of Ch i can be a useful one because this is a term to characterize the way a writer shows his genius in his work. The way Eliot creates tension by way of using contrasts such as frost and fire cna be explained in terms of Ch i.