There was also a recent art exhibition called "Journeys with The Waste Land" whose press coverage can help you understand what's going on in Eliot's poem. Click Here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Finally here's a link to a cool hypertext version of the poem with a lot of helpful explanation. Click Here (Links to an external site.)
1. Choose one of the five parts of The Waste Land and trace the use of two of the three techniques discussed in this lesson in Eliot (fragmentation, juxtaposition, allusion). How does Eliot make the transition from scene to scene? Does there seem to be one speaker or two? How do we make a sense of meaning out of the rush of words? NOTE: Make sure you don't misspell Eliot---it's only one L, not two (not Elliot, or Elliott).
Part 2:
Lesson 8
Modernism II: Fiction
Anderson, “Winesburg” & “Hands” (D253-57)
Porter, “Flowering Judas” (D473-81)
Hemingway, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/heming.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. )
Fitzgerald, “Babylon Revisited” (D646-61)
Two questions:
1. Examine how Anderson and Fitzgerald use external symbolism to reveal their characters' states of mind. What type of reading demands does this approach make on the audience?
2. How do Hemingway and Porter use internal symbolism to convey a character's state of mind?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: STRONG OPENING THESIS, DEVELOPMENT (500 words), SUPPORT (quotations), OBJECTIVE TONE (No "I" or "we").