엘리엇 문학의 대중문화적 요소

The Elements of Popular Culture in T. S. Eliot: With Special Reference to His Sweeney Agonistes

T. S. Eliot shows interest in the popular writers such as Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens as well as in the classical writers. He employs the elements of popular culture, including mystery thriller techniques and jazz rhythm so that religious themes can survive in the secular plays. However, only a few critics have written on this aspect, and the subject of popular culture and its relation to this work deserve more attention. This study aims to analyze T. S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes by discovering the elements of popular culture such as the techniques of the detective novel, jazz rhythm, knocks, and the ringing of the bell which play an important role in the work both as a dramatic device and a theme with religious and secular connotations. Eliot took a significant step towards reviving religious drama in the secular theater by using popular elements. For him such a revival was a matter of great cultural significance. In fact, they are devices not only to explain his Christian ideas but also to illuminate the thematic pattern of his later plays. He makes symbolic use of elements inherent in popular culture, which itself as a genre may provide only the cheapest entertainment and are seemingly empty of any serious purpose. But he did not employ them merely to entertain his audience, but managed to convey significant religious meaning through them.