T. S. 엘리엇 시의 공간

Space in T. S. Eliot's Poetry: Centered on The Waste Land

Joong-Eun AhnThis paper aims at exploring topographically the symbolic meanings of various spaces, mainly focusing on proper places in the poetry of Eliot, the “poet of space,” especially in The Waste Land, the “spatial poem.” The places Starnbergersee, London, London Bridge, King William Street, Saint Mary Woolnoth, Cannon Street Hotel, Metropole Hotel, Strand, Queen Victoria Street, Lower Thames Street, The Thames, Greenwich Reach, Isle of Dogs, Tower of London signified by white towers, Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, Highbury, Richmond, Kew Gardens, Moorgate, Margate Sands, Carthage, and sunken Ganga in the poem are included in Bachelard's spatial concept, the “hostile space,” whereas Hofgarten, Lman, St. Magnus the Martyr, and Himavant are categorized in his spatial concept, the “felicitous space.” Thus Eliot, through the whole of The Waste Land, depicts the overwhelmingly dominant and destructive spaces, composed of sexually degraded modern men and materially civilized cities, represented by the City of London, similar to Baudelaire's “fourmillante cit,” rather than the blessed space which provides leisure, life and immortality to man and nature as well. In conclusion, Eliot represents the perspective of Dantean Inferno, matched with the metaphor of the title of the poem itself, by employing appropriate symbolism and significant connotations in terms of a variety of proper place names inclusive of urban landscapes, townscapes, river landscapes, desert landscapes, and seascapes.