T.S. Eliot and Reader-Response Criticism Miss

Abstract

In the first half of the 20th century and in the climate of a great literary upheaval, reader- response theory was slouching towards the 1960s to be born. The present paper vindicates that T.S. Eliot anticipates the critical theory known as reader- response theory despite being one of the progenitors of New Criticism. T.S. Elliot has hitherto been viewed as one of the promulgators of New Criticism, which considers the text as an autonomous and self-regulating system, or an autotelic artifact. The bard makes vociferous demands on his readers not to be under the sway of their emotions in the reading process. Literary interpretation requires deflection from the author’s intention and his personal history as well as the extirpation of the reader’s feelings, because the text has a life of its own. By making a close reading of his essays, one might decrypt the vestiges of what comes later to be known as reader-response criticism. Eliot oft recedes from a purely aesthetic view of literature, proffering an alternative to a strict New Critical approach.