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Context - Eliot Exemplars (Research Task)

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Context - Eliot Exemplars (Research Task)

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Rubric - Module B (Critical Study of Text)

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Rubric - Module B (Critical Study of Text)

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In this module, students develop detailed analytical and critical knowledge, understanding and appreciation of a substantial literary text. Through increasingly informed and personal responses to the text in its entirety, students understand the distinctive qualities of the text, notions of textual integrity and significance. Students study one prescribed text. Central to this study is the close analysis of the text’s construction, content and language to develop students’ own rich interpretation of the text, basing their judgements on detailed evidence drawn from their research and reading. In doing so, they evaluate notions of context with regard to the text’s composition and reception; investigate and evaluate the perspectives of others; and explore the ideas in the text, further strengthening their informed personal perspective. Students have opportunities to appreciate and express views about the aesthetic and imaginative aspects of the text by composing creative and critical texts of their own. Through reading, viewing or listening they critically analyse, evaluate and comment on the text’s specific language features and form. They express complex ideas precisely and cohesively using appropriate register, structure and modality. They draft, appraise and refine their own texts, applying the conventions of syntax, spelling and grammar appropriately.

Opportunities for students to engage deeply with the text as a responder and composer further develops personal and intellectual connections with the text, enabling them to express their considered perspective of its value and meaning.

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T.S. Eliot - Critical Study of Text

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TS Eliot Program Advanced English - Module B

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T.S. Eliot's Life and Career | Biographical Timeline | Bibliography | General Statements on Eliot | On "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" | On "Gerontion" | On The Waste Land | On the Composition of The Waste Land | On "The Hollow Men" | On "The Journey of the Magi" | On "Burnt Norton" | Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1920) | Additional Poems by Eliot | A T.S.

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Context for T.S. Eliot

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Analysis

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T.S. Eliot

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Eliot Reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

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Eliot Reading The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

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T.S. Eliot Reads: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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Student Task

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Modernist poetry often is difficult for students to analyze and understand. A primary reason students feel a bit disoriented when reading a modernist poem is that the speaker himself is uncertain about his or her own ontological bearings.

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T.S. Eliot

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T.S. Eliot

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Annotated Copy of The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

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Annotated Copy of The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

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Annotated Copy of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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About T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) as a poet and critic came to define the modernist movement and still dominates the literary landscape of the last century. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prominent local family. He attended Harvard where his eclectic course of studies introduced him to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and a working knowledge of Sanskrit (he already knew Latin, Greek, French and German). After a year in Paris, Eliot began work at Harvard on his doctoral thesis on the philosophy of F. H. Bradley. A career in academia beckoned, but whilst studying for his PhD Eliot had a revelatory encounter with the work of the French Symbolist poets, in particular Jules Laforgue, and began composing poetry under their influence. In 1914 Eliot took up a post at Merton College, Oxford, as a visiting fellow in philosophy. Although he didn't intend it at the time, this move was to prove decisive: England became his home for the rest of his life and, as a writer, Eliot came to align himself with the European rather than American tradition. In 1915, after a short courtship, Eliot married Vivien Haigh-Wood, a charming but emotionally unstable woman from a conventional upper-middle class English family. The marriage was to be deeply unhappy, punctuated by breakdowns in Vivien's mental and physical health, culminating in her commitment to a mental hospital in 1938. The newly-wed poet struggled to earn a living, as a teacher, reviewer and lecturer, eventually gaining a measure of financial security when he joined Lloyd's Bank in London in 1917. The war years in the capital were formative for Eliot's career, particularly with regard to his friendship with Ezra Pound which connected him to leading figures in the international avant garde. It was Pound, in his role as a friend, editor and promoter, who did most to establish Eliot as the pre-eminent figure in the modernist movement, particularly through his decisive editorial intervention in 'The Waste Land'. Eliot's literary career now gained momentum: Prufrock and Other Observations appeared in 1917 and made a strong impact. However, growing professional success masked personal suffering as the Eliots' marriage disintegrated, prompting a nervous breakdown in Eliot which resulted in three months' enforced rest. It was during this period that 'The Waste Land' was composed, his bleak masterpiece of psychic fragmentation. With its collage of voices, its violent disjunctions in tone and wealth of cultural allusion, 'The Waste Land' also resonated as a depiction of the ruins of post-war European civilisation. It was published in The Criterion, a quarterly cultural that Eliot edited until 1939. This role, along with his involvement with another important journal, The Egoist, and his position from 1925 as one of the Directors of Faber & Faber established Eliot as the leading literary critic of his time, as well as its most famous poet. His essay on the impersonality of the poet and his concept of the "objective correlative", to name but two of his best known ideas, have been part of the critical currency ever since. However, the 1920s also saw Eliot become increasingly conservative in outlook, particularly following his conversion to the Anglican Church in 1927, the same year he became a British Citizen. His religious conversion was to have a far-reaching impact on the rest of his career, culminating in the Christian meditations of Four Quartets (1943), his last major poetic achievement and the work which secured him the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature. From the 1930s, inspired by his love of Shakespeare and the Jacobean dramatists, Eliot poured much of his creative energy into attempting to revive the verse drama to varying success, with Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party usually considered the most effective of these experiments. By then he'd affected a separation from Vivien who died in a private mental hospital in 1947. A decade later Eliot married Valerie Fletcher and enjoyed a measure of personal happiness which had previously eluded him. He died, of emphysema, in 1965 ad was buried at East Coker, the Somerset village which gave its name to one of the 'Four Quartets' and from where his ancestors had emigrated to America in the 17th Century. For the man who wrote "in my end is my beginning" this circularity was profoundly resonant. Aspects of Eliot's reputation have been debated since, but he remains a pervasive presence in poetry in English.

The Archive is delighted to present a significant amount of recorded material. 'Journey of the Magi' was written soon after his conversion to Anglicanism in 1927. It is a dramatic monologue of Browningesque ambition and subtlety and is therefore particularly suited to being read aloud. 'Four Quartets', Eliot's moving meditation on time and its relationship to the human condition, draws on his deep knowledge of mysticism and philosophy. In these extracts from 'East Coker' and 'Little Gidding' can be seen the interweaving of theme and motif which characterises the sequence as a whole and which gives 'Four Quartets' the dense aural patterning of music. The recording of 'The Waste Land' presented here is a particularly exciting find. It dates from 1935, a decade earlier than the well-known and much more widely available 1946 recording. Whilst the sound quality is understandably not so good, the recording is fascinating for Eliot's faster, more energetic rendition. Listening to this urgent interpretation blows the dust of this iconic poem and helps us encounter it afresh.

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T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) as a poet and critic came to define the modernist movement and still dominates the literary landscape of the last century. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prominent local family.

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HSC exam papers | NSW Education Standards

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Find and download HSC past exam papers, with marking guidelines and notes from the marking centre (HSC marking feedback) , are available for each course.