• Following the educational reforms of the Victorian period there became a rapid increase in literary rates, generating a greater demand for literature.
• Eliot’s historical context of the 19 and early 20 century was a period that reveled in the superiority of wealthy, white males; sparking the intellectual tension between women and minority classes.

Industrialization

• Social turmoil amidst rapid industrialization of the urban world, Victorian literary Realism
• He avidly critiques the role of technological development and industrialization as the downfall of Westernization.
• In doing so, he seeks to draw links between the mechanization and technological advancement in everyday life and the degradation of human dignity. In this way, Eliot’s poem can be read as a criticism of the Industrial Revolution and its effects on society.
• As Eliot radically juxtaposes these images of modern industrial society against allusions to mythology, he uses the disjointed and chaotic structure of his poetry to demonstrate the difficulty of finding meaning in the modern world.

Modernism

• Emphasis on traditional formalism and ornate diction
  • Also holds a preoccupation with an analysis of inner consciousness
• Reference to the Romantic Movement and writing style, Modernist poets reject an appreciation of nature within their poetry.
  • Instead of highlighting the beauty of the Romantic period, Modernist focused on the alienation of the individual and decay of society
• Literary modernism refers to the break from traditional styles of poetry and writing. By rejecting this traditional style the modernist poets were able to portray the context of their time.
• The horrific repercussions of WW1 stimulated the necessity to reassess society
• Experimentation with genre and form – a defining characteristic of Modernism.
• Introduced the concept of the ‘unreliable narrator’ in relation to the development of novel writing.
• Further encompassing a rejection and questioning of the understood and traditional

Imagism

• Movement in early 20 century Anglo-American poetry that favors precise imagery and clear language; leading up to WWI Imagism dominated the cultural scene
  • Ezra Pound is a figure that emerged from the Imagist movement, with the intent of focusing precisely on the language of writing and its absolute meaning.