Verbal Transformation, Despair, and Hope in The Waste Land

Shudong Chen

doi:10.5771/9781666907636

Summary

Based closely in spirit upon the most recent development in prosodic studies, Verbal Transformation, Despair, and Hope in The Waste Land attempts another round of “philosophical investigation”. The book demonstrates how The Waste Land could be read afresh in terms of the hidden verbal transformation that reveals the overlooked performative and collaborative nature of language. This verbal transformation makes The Waste Land flow naturally as truly “rhythmical creation of [meaningful] beauty” the way Poe defines poetry, especially through what Eliot calls “auditory imagination” or what Herder calls “intermediary sensation” that makes the poetry “the first language” of humanity or “the dictionary of the soul.” The verbal transformation also serendipitously makes sounds of despair the sounds of hope.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-6669-0762-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-0763-6
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 324
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. 1. Notes No access
1. The Waste Land as Wetland and Reading as Wading or Island-Hopping across Swamps No access
2. The Message of Hope Inherent in Sounds as Life-Substantiating Echoes of Void of Chaos No access
3. Void as Matrix of Substance and Pattern: The Illuminating Views from Across Cultures No access
4. Message of Hope Inherent in Sounds of Despair No access
5. Message of Hope in Text-Enlivening Trivial Life-Affirming Sound No access
6. The Message of Hope in the Least Noticeable “Stony Rubbish” in Words No access
7. Performative Nonsense and the Crucial Role of Sound No access
8. True Wit as Text-Specific “Museum Effect” Alive with Readers’ “Informed Imagination” No access
9. The Message of Hope in the Jazz-Like Allusions Improvised avec Mon Frère No access
10. The Reversibility OF the Meaningful and the Nonsensical THROUGH Verbal Transformation No access
11. The Message of Hope Alive with Perceiving-I through Readers in the Itemized Worded World No access
12. The Message of Hope in Sound-Invoked “Intermediary Sensation” or “Auditory Imagination” No access
13. The Invisible and the Trivial That Perform “Unnerving Splendor” and “Daemonic Eloquence” as “Poetic Acrobatics” on “Safety Net” No access
14. Message of Despair and Hope as Inseparable “Mon Frère” No access
15. Conclusion: Theme, Structure, and Strategy No access
16. Notes No access
1. Treasure in Trash: Scavenging Message of Hope from the Wasteland of Despair No access
2. The Role of Performing “And” No access
3. The Involuntary Role of “And” as Unexpected but Natural Allusion No access
4. The Function of I and You No access
5. Cretan Paradox and Problematic Issues of I and/as You No access
6. Perceiving You as the Otherized I and I as the Alienated You in Disguise No access
7. The Necessity of Restraint in Making Sense of Allusions No access
8. Grasping Contextualized Mind-Liberating Power of Allusions through Disciplined Sensitivity No access
9. Balancing the Literal and Figurative Use of Words and Allusions No access
10. Literal and Figural Sense of Balancing as Allusions-Mediated I-You Dialog No access
11. The Function of Characters: Real or Imaginary No access
12. The Verbally Incommunicable Nonsenses and Silence That Serendipitously Communicate No access
13. How Absurdity and Nonsenses Communicate: Cases of Mutual Illumination No access
14. Pivotal Role of Function Words in Maintaining Visual Quality and Narrative Rhythm No access
15. Cross-Reference Regarding Pivotal Role of Function Words No access
16. A Picture of Void That Pictures the Incommunicable Picture of Reality No access
17. Conclusion: Text as Meaningful Void of Interpenetrated Living Cultural Ecologies No access
18. Notes No access
1. The Performative Function of Function Words No access
2. The Performative Power of “Still” No access
3. The Further Telltale Signs of “Still” No access
4. Theoretical Implication of the Use of “Still” from across Cultures No access
5. A Personal Account as Reference No access
6. Message of Hope in Bond-Making Nonsense-Talking and Barrier-Making Team Effort No access
7. Wall-Mending as Bond-Making through Nonsense-Talking as Doing Things Together No access
8. Conclusion: Making Nonsenses Meaningfully Communicative No access
9. Notes No access
1. The Story of “The” and Meaning of Nymphs No access
2. The Role-Performing Agency of I-You and Message of Hope Sustaining Language No access
3. Frequent Role-Shifting of Perceiving-I and Swift Narrative Modes Switching No access
4. The Versatility of “I” and Legend, Mythology, and History Perceived as Performed No access
5. Narrating as Performing into the Living Ecologies of Text No access
6. Narrating as Performing for “the Sweeter, Unheard Melody” Hidden in Words No access
7. “The Sweeter, Unheard Melody” Echoing Alive in the Foreign Tongues No access
8. Conclusion: Hope in Despair No access
9. Notes No access
1. Revelation of Cycle of Life in the Upanishads and in the Liezi as in Nature No access
2. Revelation of the Message of Hope through “Mon Frère” No access
3. Revelation as Sculpted Timely Timelessness of Hope in Solid Message of Fluidity No access
4. From “The Mediterranean” to “Two Large Forms”: Discovering the Sculpted Pivotal Message No access
5. Serendipitous Lakeside Conversation on “Death by Water” at a Little “Paradise” No access
6. Conclusion: Revelation of Hope in the Text of Void as Meaningful Ecologies No access
7. Notes No access
1. The Performing Power of Language and the Soul-Appealing Sounds of Words No access
2. Message of Sounds as Message from Soul to Soul No access
3. HOPE IN THE SOUND OF WATER AS SWEETER, UNHEARD MELODY IN/OF SOUND OF WORDS No access
4. Hope in the Interlocking Sound Pattern That Expresses the Inexpressible No access
5. Hope in the Primitive and Performative Sounds of Life No access
6. Hope in the Performative Words from Foreign Tongues No access
7. Hope in the Void of Melting Pot of Allusions as Performative “Asides” No access
8. Echoes of Hope through Echoes of Foreign Words No access
9. HOPE IN THE IRREDUCIBLE SIMPLE MESSAGE THROUGH THE INFINITELY VARIABLE SCOPES No access
10. Conclusion: The Waste Land as Irreplaceable Nexus of Eliot’s Poetic World No access
11. Notes No access
1. I. Sources on T. S. Eliot AND HIS MAJOR WORKS No access
2. II. Sources in General No access
Index No access Pages 309 - 322
About the Author No access Pages 323 - 324