Elliot is a great American poet of genius. In this podcast, I discuss his literary theory, specifically his attitude to the relationship between the individual poet and tradition. Elliot puts forth an attitude neither of blind conformity nor personal self-aggrandizement and detachment from tradition. Instead, Elliot calls for a depersonalization, in which the poet loses his own ego in becoming a medium for the current of the historical consciousness. Tradition is not automatically inherited as some rote procedure, but has to be laboriously acquired. Here is a link to the pdf of the brief essay Elliot wrote when still a young man: https://people.unica.it/fiorenzoiuliano/files/2017/05/tradition-and-the-individual-talent.pdf.
