만하임 사회이론에 대한 엘리엇의 응답

Eliot’s Response to Mannheim’s Social Theory: Focusing on the Problems of Impersonality and Tradition

Notes towards the Definition of Culture is T. S. Eliot’s sociological approach to culture and response to Karl Mannheim’s social theory. On the basis of Eliot’s concept on culture which has its roots in his tradition and impersonal theory, this paper investigates his critical response to Manheim’s social theory. Eliot’s literary criticism, especially his idea on tradition, impersonal theory and his social criticism in the 1930s, is the preliminary arguments for the formation of his idea on culture. These arguments provides for him a mediation between his early literary concept and later social idea on culture, and the final result is Notes towards the Definition of Culture in which he, though never using the critical term of impersonality, criticises Manheim’s epistemological approaches which advocate individual personality.