Re: Here is Belladonna

["Earls, JP" <JEarls@nospam.csbsju.edu>]

Joćo writes:
"It is perfectly legitimate to investigate Eliot's motives for writing
this
or that. That's a biographical problem, to be solved by means of
historical
research, psychoanalytical hypotheses, and so on. It has nothing to do
with
the meaning of a text."

Dear Joćo,
I read this passage as I emerged from a several moments in deep study of
Dante's _Purgatorio_.  I am preparing to teach the _Commedia_ next
semester.  As I look at commentary on these superb poems, again and
again I encounter speculation on what meaning the facts of Dante's life
bring to bear on our understanding of the poem, qua poem.  What had he
read; who showed him hospitality after his exile from Florence; what had
he said in the _Convivio_; who had showed hostility to him and his
party; who were his teachers and what had he gotten from them and how
did he feel about them; was he sexually attracted to Beatrice; was
Beatrice more a poetic device rather than a real person?  

Your comments, as I read them, seem to see this search for illuminating
relationships between an author's life and his/her works as an
irrelevant and perhaps voyeuristically inspired enterprise that can only
distract from efforts to find the "real" meaning in the words of the
text and there alone.  

Perhaps you will respond that Dante didn't attempt to hide these
relationships as I and others see Eliot doing at times.  Dante does
avoid naming names and making direct accusations of evil deeds if he
thinks it impolitic to do so, given the state of things as he was
composing.  I believe he may even use mythological characters to talk
indirectly about current affairs.  I haven't gotten deeply enough into
Dante studies to be able to state whether or not he does it to the
extent that Eliot does, but I think I see a working principle here
shared by the two poets, Eliot following Dante's example.  Eliot doesn't
want "to wash his dirty linen in public," but he does want his poetry to
arise from the emotional depths of his life.  My experience has been
that the more I can discern these relationships between life and art in
Eliot's work, the more I appreciate his artistic achievement. That Eliot
might not be as admirable a character as Dante is possible.  He is,
however, a very complex and subtle poet whose technique deserves our
closest scrutiny.  

J. P. Earls, OSB
St. John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321