Language in the Middle Way: T. S. Eliot's Engagement with Madhyamaka Buddhism in Four Quartets
In this paper, I trace the influence that Buddhist texts had on the poetic design and philosophical orientation of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. References to the middle way in the poems point us to texts from the very earliest moments of the Buddhist tradition, texts to which Eliot had access...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 86, Issue: 3, Pages: 821-850 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Eliot, T. S. 1888-1965, Four quartets
/ Nāgārjuna, Mādhyamakakārikā
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| RelBib Classification: | BL Buddhism CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CD Christianity and Culture |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I trace the influence that Buddhist texts had on the poetic design and philosophical orientation of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. References to the middle way in the poems point us to texts from the very earliest moments of the Buddhist tradition, texts to which Eliot had access. More specifically, I develop the suggestion offered by Jeffrey Perl and Andrew Tuck that the work of Nagarjuna, the second-century founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism (the so-called Middle Way school), could have played an important role in T. S. Eliot's philosophical and poetic development. I employ Perl and Tuck's assertion as a hermeneutical lens through which to analyze Eliot's work. I suggest that Eliot's allusions to the middle way in Four Quartets can usefully be understood through Nagarjuna's causal analysis and linguistic theories, themselves codifications in part of the earlier Buddhist priorities. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfx056 |