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class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Prior_critical_work" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Prior_critical_work"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.1</span> <span>Prior critical work</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Prior_critical_work-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Eliot_and_New_Criticism" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Eliot_and_New_Criticism"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.2</span> <span>Eliot and New Criticism</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Eliot_and_New_Criticism-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Content_of_the_lecture" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Content_of_the_lecture"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Content of the lecture</span> 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</div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p> <b>"The Frontiers of Criticism"</b> is a lecture given by <a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot" title="T. S. Eliot">T. S. Eliot</a> at the <a href="/wiki/University_of_Minnesota" title="University of Minnesota">University of Minnesota</a> in 1956.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It was reprinted in <i>On Poetry and Poets</i>, a collection of Eliot's critical essays, in 1957. The essay is an attempt by Eliot to define the boundaries of <a href="/wiki/Literary_criticism" title="Literary criticism">literary criticism</a>: to say what does, and what does not, constitute truly <i>literary</i> criticism, as opposed to, for example, a study in history based upon a work of literature. The essay is significant because it represents Eliot's response to the <a href="/wiki/New_Criticism" title="New Criticism">New Critical</a> perspective which had taken the academic study of literature by storm during Eliot's lifetime. It also presents an analysis of some of its author's own <a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot#Eliot's_poetry" title="T. S. Eliot">poetic works</a>, an unusual characteristic for modern criticism—it has become far more usual today for poets and critics to be in separate camps, rather than united in one individual. Perhaps even more importantly, it demonstrates the progress and change in Eliot's own critical thought over the years between 1919 and 1956. </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Background">Background</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Background"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Prior_critical_work">Prior critical work</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Prior critical work"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Part of the reason for the importance of this particular piece in Eliot's body of work is the position it holds as successor to an earlier (and probably better known) effort at defining the critical endeavour, <a href="/wiki/Tradition_and_the_Individual_Talent" title="Tradition and the Individual Talent">Tradition and the Individual Talent</a>. In that earlier piece (first published in 1919), Eliot made famous use of a <a href="/wiki/Metaphor" title="Metaphor">metaphor</a> drawn from <a href="/wiki/Chemistry" title="Chemistry">chemistry</a> to describe the process of "depersonalization" that Eliot claimed to be a necessary condition of poetic creation. In this analogy, Eliot compares the poet him- or herself to a <a href="/wiki/Catalyst" class="mw-redirect" title="Catalyst">catalyst</a>, whose presence causes "feelings" and "emotions" to react with one another and combine in ways not possible without the poet's <a href="/wiki/Mind" title="Mind">mind</a>. </p><p>The essay also makes the point that "No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. . . . The existing [literary] monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Eliot contended that while art never actually got better, it was in a continual state of flux. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Eliot_and_New_Criticism">Eliot and New Criticism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Eliot and New Criticism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Eliot is often claimed by the New Critics as one of their founding fathers, an "honor" he rejected for much the same reasons that he avoided explicit theorising on the subject of literature: namely, because of his conception of the only true criticism as that of a poet trying to better his art.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In some of his work, Eliot had espoused the idea of criticism as necessarily impersonal. </p><p>The evaluation of Eliot's criticism occurred relatively early; for example, an appraisal of his work focusing exclusively on Eliot the critic (as opposed to Eliot the poet) appeared in 1941 in a book by <a href="/wiki/John_Crowe_Ransom" title="John Crowe Ransom">John Crowe Ransom</a>. Ransom, participating in the New Critical tradition of borrowing from Eliot, writes that </p> <blockquote> <p>One of the best things in his influence has been his habit of considering <a href="/wiki/Aesthetics" title="Aesthetics">aesthetic</a> effect as independent of religious effect, or moral, or political and social; as an end that is beyond and not co-ordinate with these.<sup id="cite_ref-the_new_criticism_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-the_new_criticism-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> </blockquote> <p>This is quite similar to the New Critical attitudes of such authors as <a href="/wiki/W._K._Wimsatt" class="mw-redirect" title="W. K. Wimsatt">W. K. Wimsatt</a> and <a href="/wiki/Monroe_Beardsley" title="Monroe Beardsley">Monroe Beardsley</a>. In their theories of literary criticism, it is of vital importance to separate the work in question from all other factors, both on the side of creation (i.e., the <a href="/wiki/Intentional_fallacy" class="mw-redirect" title="Intentional fallacy">writer's intentions</a>) and on that of consumption (the <a href="/wiki/Affective_fallacy" title="Affective fallacy">reader's reactions</a>). </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Content_of_the_lecture">Content of the lecture</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Content of the lecture"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Eliot's paper is a concise statement of his reactions to the new directions that literary criticism had taken in the years since the publication in 1923 of his article "The Function of Criticism." In this way, the paper is also a more mature re-evaluation of his own positions. Much of its length is involved in this kind of self-study, both of his earlier critical work as well as of his poetry. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Influences_on_later_critics">Influences on later critics</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Influences on later critics"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Throughout, the essay demonstrates the influences Eliot had on the New Critics. While Eliot states early on that he failed to see why he was deemed by current literary scholarship to have given birth to New Criticism (106), he also uses the essay as a platform from which to proclaim a number of principles that are quite similar to those of the New Critics: </p> <ul><li>the idea of the circumstances surrounding a work's creation as irrelevant (112)</li> <li>the "danger . . . of assuming that there must be just one interpretation of the poem as a whole, [and] that it must be right" (113)</li> <li>the lack of a need to assess the author's intent (113–14)</li> <li>the unimportance of the "feelings" of the reader (114)</li> <li>the limitation of <i>literary</i> criticism to the study of the literary object, i.e., the work itself (116)</li></ul> <p>However, at the same time, Eliot takes the opportunity to disavow that school of criticism. He ridicules one of the methods of New Criticism, known today as <a href="/wiki/Close_reading" title="Close reading">close reading</a>, describing it thus: </p> <blockquote> <p>The method is to take a well-known poem . . . without reference to the author or to his other work, analyse it <a href="/wiki/Stanza" title="Stanza">stanza</a> by stanza and line by line, and extract, squeeze, tease, press every drop of meaning out of it that one can. It might be called the lemon-squeezer school of criticism. . . . I imagine that some of the poets (they are all dead except myself) would be surprised at learning what their poems mean . . . (113) </p> </blockquote> <p>Eliot is here giving voice to one of the most common objections to New Criticism, namely that it removes all the enjoyment from a work of literature by <a href="/wiki/Dissection" title="Dissection">dissecting</a> it. This essay strongly asserts that enjoyment is an important component of the reading of literature. Eliot makes no distinction between "<i>enjoyment</i> and <i>understanding</i>," seeing the two not "as distinct activities—one emotional and the other intellectual. . . . To understand a poem comes to the same thing as to enjoy it for the right reasons" (115). On the whole question of <i>enjoyment</i>, Eliot diverges from the general trend of New Criticism, which primarily concerned itself with interpretation. Eliot further distances himself from the New Critics with his implication of the possibility of <i>misunderstanding</i> a poem (115), an idea that the New Critics would consider heretical.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Difference_between_understanding_and_explanation">Difference between understanding and explanation</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Difference between understanding and explanation"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>A large part of this lecture is devoted to Eliot's critique of what he calls "the criticism by explanation of origins" (107). One of these is <i>The Road to Xanadu</i>, by <a href="/wiki/John_Livingston_Lowes" title="John Livingston Lowes">John Livingston Lowes</a>, a work that is now virtually unknown. The other, however, is <a href="/wiki/James_Joyce" title="James Joyce">James Joyce</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Finnegans_Wake" title="Finnegans Wake">Finnegans Wake</a></i>, a work composed mostly what Eliot refers to as "merely beautiful nonsense" (109) that has puzzled critics since its publication. </p><p>These works provide Eliot a springboard from which to launch an "analysis" of his own poems. He takes an amused tone when describing his feelings on hearing what some readers have thought about his various works, with primary reference to <i><a href="/wiki/The_Waste_Land" title="The Waste Land">The Waste Land</a></i>. Eliot discusses the process by which the notes to that poem came to be, saying that, to his regret, "They have had almost greater popularity than the poem itself" (110). Eliot uses the example of <i>Finnegans Wake</i> to illuminate the distinction between <i>explanation</i> and <i>understanding</i>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Definition_of_literary_criticism">Definition of literary criticism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Definition of literary criticism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Eliot, like the New Critics, distinguishes among types or classes of criticism, isolating (as the lecture's title suggests) a certain area for <i>literary</i> criticism. Also like the New Critics, he allows that there is merit to such studies. He credits Coleridge with bringing other disciplines (e.g., philosophy, <a href="/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychology</a>) into the field of literary study. Eliot defines specifically literary criticism as criticism written in order </p> <blockquote> <p>to help his [i.e., the critic's] readers to <i>understand and enjoy</i> [a work of literature]. ... </p><p>We can therefore ask, about any writing which is offered to us as literary criticism, is it aimed towards understanding and enjoyment? If it is not, it may still be a legitimate and useful activity; but it is to be judged as a contribution to psychology, or sociology, or <a href="/wiki/Logic" title="Logic">logic</a>, or <a href="/wiki/Pedagogy" title="Pedagogy">pedagogy</a>, or some other pursuit—and it is to be judged by specialists, not by men of letters. (116–17) </p> </blockquote> <p>The argument of the essay is for a strongly individualist criticism, made clear by the frequent references to the author's own works. "The best of my <i>literary</i> criticism . . . consists of essays on poets and poetic dramatists who had influenced me" (106). In this, Eliot has something in common with the style of literary criticism expounded by <a href="/wiki/Matthew_Arnold" title="Matthew Arnold">Matthew Arnold</a>, known for its emphasis on reading to make oneself a better writer. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>T. S. Eliot, "The Frontiers of Criticism," <i>On Poetry and Poets</i> (London: Faber and Faber, 1957), 103–18.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Notes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width reflist-columns-2"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Eliot's lecture was delivered on 30 April 1956 in <a href="/wiki/Minneapolis,_Minnesota" class="mw-redirect" title="Minneapolis, Minnesota">Minneapolis, Minnesota</a> to an audience of 14,000 at a stadium.<br /><a href="/wiki/Peter_Ackroyd" title="Peter Ackroyd">Ackroyd, Peter</a>. <i>T. S. Eliot: A Life</i>. (1984) p. 317</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">T. S. Eliot, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html">"Tradition and the Individual Talent"</a>, <i>The Sacred Wood</i> (1920).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">T. S. Eliot, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw2.html">"The Perfect Critic"</a>, <i>The Sacred Wood</i> (1920).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-the_new_criticism-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-the_new_criticism_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">John Crowe Ransom, <i>The New Criticism</i> (Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1941), 138.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">The precise line from Eliot's paper is "to enjoy a poem under a misunderstanding is to enjoy what is merely a projection of our own mind." The "official" New Critical line on this subject would follow <a href="/wiki/Stanley_Fish" title="Stanley Fish">Stanley Fish</a>'s argument that there is no text without the mind of a reader; in other words, since the only way for a poem to exist is for it to be constructed in a reader's mind by the act of reading, there is no possibility of "misunderstanding" any work of literature.</span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol 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.navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="T._S._Eliot" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="3"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:T._S._Eliot" title="Template:T. S. Eliot"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:T._S._Eliot" title="Template talk:T. S. Eliot"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:T._S._Eliot" title="Special:EditPage/Template:T. S. Eliot"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="T._S._Eliot" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot" title="T. S. Eliot">T. S. Eliot</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div><a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot_bibliography" title="T. S. Eliot bibliography">Bibliography</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Early poems</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock" title="The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock">The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Lady_(poem)" title="Portrait of a Lady (poem)">Portrait of a Lady</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Preludes_(poem)" title="Preludes (poem)">Preludes</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Whispers_of_Immortality" title="Whispers of Immortality">Whispers of Immortality</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Gerontion" title="Gerontion">Gerontion</a>"</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Waste_Land" title="The Waste Land">The Waste Land</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Hollow_Men" title="The Hollow Men">The Hollow Men</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Ash_Wednesday_(poem)" title="Ash Wednesday (poem)">Ash Wednesday</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot%27s_Ariel_poems" title="T. S. Eliot's Ariel poems">Ariel Poems</a></i></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Journey_of_the_Magi" title="Journey of the Magi">Journey of the Magi</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/A_Song_for_Simeon" title="A Song for Simeon">A Song for Simeon</a>"</li></ul> </div></td><td class="noviewer navbox-image" rowspan="8" style="width:1px;padding:0 0 0 2px"><div><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg/130px-T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg" decoding="async" width="130" height="167" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg/195px-T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg/260px-T_S_Eliot_Simon_Fieldhouse.jpg 2x" data-file-width="398" data-file-height="510" /></a></span></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Later poems</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Old_Possum%27s_Book_of_Practical_Cats" title="Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats">Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats</a></i></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Awefull_Battle_of_the_Pekes_and_the_Pollicles" title="The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles">The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Gus:_The_Theatre_Cat" title="Gus: The Theatre Cat">Gus: The Theatre Cat</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Growltiger%27s_Last_Stand" title="Growltiger's Last Stand">Growltiger's Last Stand</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/The_Naming_of_Cats" title="The Naming of Cats">The Naming of Cats</a>"</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Burnt_Norton" title="Burnt Norton">Burnt Norton</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/East_Coker_(poem)" title="East Coker (poem)">East Coker</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Dry_Salvages" title="The Dry Salvages">The Dry Salvages</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Little_Gidding_(poem)" title="Little Gidding (poem)">Little Gidding</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Four_Quartets" title="Four Quartets">Four Quartets</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Plays</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Sweeney_Agonistes" title="Sweeney Agonistes">Sweeney Agonistes</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Rock_(play)" title="The Rock (play)">The Rock</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Murder_in_the_Cathedral" title="Murder in the Cathedral">Murder in the Cathedral</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Family_Reunion" title="The Family Reunion">The Family Reunion</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Cocktail_Party" title="The Cocktail Party">The Cocktail Party</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Confidential_Clerk" title="The Confidential Clerk">The Confidential Clerk</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Elder_Statesman_(play)" title="The Elder Statesman (play)">The Elder Statesman</a></i></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Prose</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Selected_Essays,_1917%E2%80%931932" title="Selected Essays, 1917–1932">Selected Essays, 1917–1932</a></i></li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Hamlet_and_His_Problems" title="Hamlet and His Problems">Hamlet and His Problems</a>"</li> <li>"<a href="/wiki/Tradition_and_the_Individual_Talent" title="Tradition and the Individual Talent">Tradition and the Individual Talent</a>"</li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Sacred_Wood_(T._S._Eliot)" class="mw-redirect" title="The Sacred Wood (T. S. Eliot)">The Sacred Wood</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/A_Choice_of_Kipling%27s_Verse" title="A Choice of Kipling's Verse">A Choice of Kipling's Verse</a></i> (1941)</li> <li>"<a class="mw-selflink selflink">The Frontiers of Criticism</a>"</li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Adaptations</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Murder_in_the_Cathedral_(1951_film)" title="Murder in the Cathedral (1951 film)"><i>Murder in the Cathedral</i> (film)</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Assassinio_nella_cattedrale" title="Assassinio nella cattedrale">Assassinio nella cattedrale</a></i> (opera)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Murder_in_the_Cathedral_(1962_film)" title="Murder in the Cathedral (1962 film)"><i>Murder in the Cathedral</i> (TV play)</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Canticle_IV:_The_Journey_of_the_Magi" title="Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi">Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi</a></i></li> <li><i>Cats</i> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cats_(musical)" title="Cats (musical)">1981 musical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cats_(1998_film)" title="Cats (1998 film)">1998 film</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cats_(2019_film)" title="Cats (2019 film)">2019 film</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Publishing</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/The_Criterion" title="The Criterion">The Criterion</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faber_and_Faber" class="mw-redirect" title="Faber and Faber">Faber and Faber</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot_Prize" title="T. S. Eliot Prize">T. S. Eliot Prize</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/T._S._Eliot_Prize_(Truman_State_University)" title="T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University)">T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Portrait_of_T._S._Eliot" title="Portrait of T. S. Eliot">Portrait of T. S. Eliot</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tom_%26_Viv_(play)" title="Tom & Viv (play)"><i>Tom & Viv</i> (1984 play,</a> <a href="/wiki/Tom_%26_Viv" title="Tom & Viv">1994 film)</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">People</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Eliot_family_(America)" class="mw-redirect" title="Eliot family (America)">Eliot family</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vivienne_Haigh-Wood_Eliot" title="Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot">Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot <small>(first wife)</small></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Valerie_Eliot" title="Valerie Eliot">Valerie Eliot <small>(second wife)</small></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Henry_Ware_Eliot" title="Henry Ware Eliot">Henry Ware Eliot <small>(father)</small></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Charlotte_Champe_Stearns" class="mw-redirect" title="Charlotte Champe Stearns">Charlotte Champe Stearns <small>(mother)</small></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Greenleaf_Eliot" title="William Greenleaf Eliot">William Greenleaf Eliot <small>(grandfather)</small></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/E._Martin_Browne" title="E. Martin Browne">E. Martin Browne</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Emily_Hale" title="Emily Hale">Emily Hale</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Davy_Hayward" title="John Davy Hayward">John Davy Hayward</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ezra_Pound" title="Ezra Pound">Ezra Pound</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jean_Jules_Verdenal" title="Jean Jules Verdenal">Jean Jules Verdenal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats" class="mw-redirect" title="William Butler Yeats">William Butler Yeats</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&oldid=1198591664">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Frontiers_of_Criticism&oldid=1198591664</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Essays_in_literary_criticism" title="Category:Essays in literary criticism">Essays in literary criticism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Essays_by_T._S._Eliot" title="Category:Essays by T. 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