T. S. Eliot's ‘Ash‐Wednesday’ and Four Quartets: Poetic Confession as Psychotherapy
The article considers T.S. Eliot's ‘Ash‐Wednesday’ and Four Quartets as confessional poetry in a double sense—as interpersonal communication before God, and to the reader. It is thus akin to the relationship between therapist and client in a counselling situation. ‘Ash‐Wednesday’ constitutes a...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
2003
|
In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2003, Volume: 17, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-16 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | The article considers T.S. Eliot's ‘Ash‐Wednesday’ and Four Quartets as confessional poetry in a double sense—as interpersonal communication before God, and to the reader. It is thus akin to the relationship between therapist and client in a counselling situation. ‘Ash‐Wednesday’ constitutes a Lenten preparation in which understanding is sought by means of an articulation of failure, loss and repentance. Four Quartets uses a similar confessional technique, evoking ‘peak’ moments (both primal scene and the site of mourning) out of which religious philosophising emerges as proposed ‘interpretation’. It is suggested that the poems resemble a confidential ‘talking cure’. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/17.1.1 |