The waste land : a cacophonic polyphony of classical and modern voices

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to investigate the ways in which the multiplicity of voices in T.S. Eliot’s 1922 acclaimed poem The Waste Land come together in a polyphonic network. It aims to take these voices into consideration and determine whether their juxtaposition enables them to form an overall coexisting or a clashing effect with each other. The dissertation begins by highlighting the significance of voice as a literary device in literature, after which the difference between ‘Classical’ and ‘Modern’ voices is established. A number of literary critics are cited, and their views on the ‘Clash or Coexistence’ debate is outlined. The polyphonic style is then taken into close study, with close reference to Mikhail Bakhtin’s definition of the polyphonic and Eliot’s own views on the unification of time in ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’. After observing the style of the poem, the voices themselves are taken into consideration, with arguments being put forward to support both the idea of a clash and a coexistence. The dissertation closes by reflecting on how Eliot inverts conventional literary polyphony to illustrate an oxymoronic vision of existence.