Synopses & Reviews
By reading T.S. Eliot literally and laterally, and attending to his intra-textuality, G. Douglas Atkins challenges the familiar notion of Eliot as bent on escaping this world for the spiritual. This study culminates in the necessary, but seemingly impossible, union of reading and writing, literature and commentary.
Review
'Building on Eliot's own theory of lateral reading, G. Douglas Atkins engages in the sort of interpretation that Eliot himself endorsed. A fresh and original approach, Eliot Materialized: Literal Meaning and Embodied Truth changes the way we read the works of T. S. Eliot.' - Kevin Gardner, Department of English, Baylor University, USA
Review
"In this slim volume focusing on T. S. Eliot's poems in Ash-Wednesday and Four Quartets, Atkins proposes first to challenge the 'deep' reading of Eliot that finds meaning buried beneath symbols, and second, to refute the claim that Eliot is an idealist seeking to transcend the material world. In place of the so-called deep reading, Atkins offers both a 'lateral' reading (i.e., reading a particular poem alongside other work by that author) and a 'literal' reading, which purports to take 'the plain meaning of the words' as Eliot's intended meaning. Although he concedes at points that this plain meaning can be perplexing or enigmatic, he insists that when read literally, both Ash-Wednesday and Four Quartets pivot on the figure of the Incarnation - the central mystery of Christianity . . . this is a provocative argument, and the point Atkins makes regarding Eliot's idealism is persuasive. Summing Up: Recommended." - Choice
Synopsis
Today, nearly 100 years after the publication of 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, ' The Sacred Wood, and The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot still suffers from the perception of being difficult to read. In this lively and accessible book, G. Douglas Atkins moves beyond the familiar 'deep' readings and challenges the familiar notion of Eliot as bent on escaping this world for the spiritual world. In line with the poet's own comparative procedures, Atkins reads him literally and laterally, attending to his intra-textuality. By finding meaning in new places, Eliot's commitment to the physical, tangible, sensory world appears beside the spiritual. These original interpretations culminate in the necessary, but seemingly impossible, union of reading, writing, literature, and commentary
About the Author
G. Douglas Atkins is a professor of English at the University of Kansas. He is the author and editor of more than a dozen books, including Reading T.S. Eliot: 'Four Quartets' and the Journey Towards Understanding; T.S. Eliot and the Essay; On the Familiar Essay: Challenging Academic Orthodoxies; and Literary Paths to Religious Understanding: Essays on Dryden, Pope, Keats, George Eliot, Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and E.B. White. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including NEH, Mellon, and American Council of Learned Societies and was the winner of the Kenyon Review's prize for literary excellence in nonfiction prose.
Table of Contents
Reading Literally, Reading Laterally
Affirming Life's Newness and Joy:Turning and Acceptance in Ash-Wednesday
Falling in Love and Reading Spinoza: Some Forms of Approach to 'Amalgamating Disparate Experience'
The Gift Half Understood: Incarnation as 'Impossible Union,' Way, and Intersection
The Word, Words, and the World: Redeeming the Word, or Some Implications of Incarnation for Reading and Writing about Literature