Introduction
Art is a skill that facilitates the order of things like sculptures, poems, and paintings. In his book The Techne Theory: A New Language for Art, Staten states that a skilled craftsman, like an artist, requires knowledge of previous works (4). The statement directly contrasts the Romantic view of an artist, which portrays a craftsman as a genius who can create unique art from nothing. According to the Romantic, all past conventions are violated, and the genius develops a new concept that never existed. Staten states that “Techne is just practical know-how” (4). A skill or knowledge of the artisan occurs naturally, like a mechanical activity.
In support of Staten’s viewpoint about art in his book, two modern theorists, Thomas Stearns Elliot and Ezra Pound, are used to justify their thoughts. The two were critical literary writers in the contemporary era whose prose can be compared and contrasted as they shared similar ideas and different opinions. The modernist era brought about new writers like Eliot and Pound, who developed new themes, styles, and techniques for art formation; a comparison and contrast can be drawn to understand their contribution to literary craft.
The research paper is structured as follows: it compares Thomas Eliot and Ezra Pound by first concisely describing why they left America. Their bibliographies are also presented briefly to help clarify knowing the two philosophers. An elaboration of art production based on the techne Standpoint is then given. An analysis of the artistic, literary theory and criticism is then provided to understand the similarities between Eliot and Pound. In understanding the definitions of art presented by Ezra and Pound, the main emphasis is placed on the theories of art they formulated and their approach to literary tradition.
The contrast between Ezra and Eliot is then elaborated based on their course toward literary art [The Artist’s Touch] in The Techne Theory. The nature of their collaboration is further executed, especially concerning The Waste Land poem. Their differences are further identified and elaborated by focusing on literary styles and themes. Despite presenting similar artworks, artists’ writing techniques are different. The research paper ends with a conclusion under which all the main arguments of the report are summarized.
Comparison
Eliot and Pound: Leaving America
Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot and Ezra Pound were two great poets of the twentieth century who developed a good friendship after meeting in Europe as exiles from America. The two writers met in 1914 and discovered they had similar desires for arts and poetry. Eliot and Ezra decided to leave their home country at a young age and relocated permanently to Europe (Devi and Singha 20). As a result, of their departure and relocation, modernism was developed. They [Eliot and Pound] both identified the difficulty of surviving in America as an artist, as it was a cultural desert, making them feel displaced.
Another writer that followed in the footsteps of Ezra and Pound was James Baldwin. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to me in France, but I [Baldwin] knew what was to happen to me in New York” (Baldwin). Those were his remarks when asked during an interview why he departed America. The three [Eliot, Pound, and Baldwin] were drawn to Europe as it was the treasure house of culture. The presence of the old cities, libraries, monuments, and museums offered them the artistic resource and environment which lacked in their home country (Odom 2). Europe was an organic society and satisfied the two writers’ hunger for order and tradition as religion and politics were more institutionalized and bound.
Eliot and Pound: Biographies
Ezra Pound and Eliot were almost agemates with only three years difference, and both grew up and studied in America. Ezra was born in 1885 in Hailey and studied Romance philosophy at Hamilton College and the University of Pennsylvania (Devi and Singha 21). In 1906 while on a study trip to Europe, Pound met other writers in various literary circles, including William Yeats and Ford Madox Ford (Odom 13). Ezra met Eliot in 1914, and after realizing they shared a lot, they developed good friendships (Odom 2). He traveled to France and then Italy, where he supported Mussolini’s regime due to his obsession with political and economic matters.
Consequently, Thomas Eliot was born in 1888 in ST. Louis and attended Harvard University. He had a strong belief in tradition which made him appreciate culture. Eliot settled in England in 1914 after traveling in Germany and Paris (Bashota and Ejupi 3). He began working on The Waste Land in 1921, which was later restructured by Pound (Bashota and Ejupi 6). In contrast to Ezra Pound, Thomas settled in England without relocating again and started a publishing career.
Techne Standpoint: Art Production
Artists and non-creators do not view art production the same way. Audiences view skill as finished items that need to be appreciated, while producers view fellow artists’ work as made and try to analyze how it was developed (Staten, “The Techne Standpoint” 39). Through the experience of other people’s work, an artist creates their techne, thus deepening their art-making knowledge. Eliot viewed the past as an integrative part of the present as it laid ground on what was already identified, making change easy. Ezra Pound affirmed this in his literary work The Spirit of Romance. He stated that an artist’s abilities could only facilitate the association of the past with the present. Techne has an impact on the promotion of the skills establishing a good artist:
Once we [Staten and all humans] become attentive to the nature of techne … all purposeful, goal-directed human action … is techne guided. There is no human agency without techne. We can’t even form a goal-directed intention without the intermediary of techne. […] human beings are transformed from biological organisms to agents by the technai they incorporate […]. (Staten 9)
Staten notes that “Techne is just practical know-how” (4). It is the skillful attainment of goals, including literary art, arts of mathematics, fishing, or carpentry (Baldwin). Art refers to the skill in which everything is organized or made, thus indicating that museums contain arts of work, not art. As opposed to the Romantic humanist ideas of art, techne is socio-historical and not an individual possession. It is practical knowledge accumulated over time before migrating to one’s body [Mind].
Literary Theory and Criticism
During the early twentieth century, a series of movements in America and Europe resulted in modernism. Ezra Pound and Thomas Elliot were among the many practitioners and exponents who facilitated its development. The many political, economic, and religious actions in the nineteenth century resulted in the various modernism witnessed during this period [1910-1930] (Bashota and Ejupi 2). Modernist writers such as Yeats, Dante, and Eliot borrowed knowledge from their predecessors and redeveloped them into improved literary works. The emphasis on impersonality, tradition, and classicism by previous American humanists like Paul Elmer and Irving Babbitt facilitated the ideas he [Eliot] had (Devi and Singha 24). T.S. Eliot became the most influential modernist through his literary criticism and poetry.
On the other hand, Ezra Pound engaged in various roles, including poetic critic. He promoted his works and those of others, including Eliot and Joyce. Pound also translated numerous works of art from Chinese, Greek, and Latin. He advocated for a poem that was precise, concrete, concise in expression, and appropriately informed (Bashota and Ejupi 5). The theory of tradition adopted by Eliot was borrowed from Pound and Babbitt (Bashota and Ejupi 6). All significant works of art, whether past or present, significantly impact the subsequent results of art as they form an ideal order that is constantly modified. Eliot implicated the need for current writers to find common ground with past texts even after they expound more. He further advanced the impersonality theory by implying that artists express accurate formulation of feelings and thoughts rather than personality during art crafting. The ideas presented by Eliot and Ezra have had a lasting influence on art definition.
Contrast
Techne Theory: The Artist’s Touch
A different author can analyze a written piece of art, preserving more valuable information while the less important one gets disregarded. Ezra Pound intervened in Eliot’s work The Waste Land and made minimal changes while cutting off parts to make the writing fascinating (Bashota and Ejupi 4). The paradigmatic poem of modernism was formless and required restructuring to make it perfect. Staten states, “[…] a skilled artist generates combinations that are more than nonsense but which have only potential value, which the second faculty has to grasp and choose to actualize its potential” (The Techne Standpoint 41).
The artist’s touch is an artisan’s ability to make correct judgments without thinking much. Eliot sought help from Pound to modify the poem [The Waste Land] and make it more appealing (Devi and Singha 18). According to Staten, “[…] The largest scale act of selection was … performed by a different person [Pound] than the one who generated the combination [Eliot] (The Techne Standpoint 39). Ezra pound was a complete artist compared to Eliot as he had more techne [skills].
Ezra and Eliot followed different paths in literary writing and life before reaching their mature techne intuitions. There is no perfect artisan who can develop art with zero mistakes:
There is no getting away from the element of ‘subjectivity,’ the art –intuition, which is … both in the artist’s touch and … the audience’s response. It is irreducible in techne … it reflects … that human beings are doing this, and everything they do requires the judgment of an intuitive sort […]. It takes skill to make art … no one is born with that skill. It is developed through exercise … learning, and reflection. (Staten, “The Techne Standpoint” 41)
Eliot tended to write longer poems than Ezra, and they were [the poems] restructured and edited by different authors (Devi and Singha 20). The two [Eliot and Pound] published articles discussing how poets should take the writing journey early in their careers.
Themes and Literary Styles
Ezra Pound used different literary techniques and styles in his writings. He [Pound] adopted the imagism movement, which stressed clarity, precision, and economy of language as in classical Japanese and Chinese poetry (Monson 128). The new approach did not adhere to the traditional rhyme and meter. The newly adopted style by Ezra aimed to “compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome” (Bashota and Ejupi 2). Contrary to this, Eliot uses varying techniques, including fragmentation, repetition, and imagism. He [Eliot] also uses poetic devices like the personification of nature, allusions, and imagery of death.
Unlike Eliot, who relocated permanently to Britain and attained citizenship, Pound did not settle in England but moved to France and Italy before returning to America in 1939 (Bashota and Ejupi 3). The principal theme Ezra included in his works is the importance of aesthetics and art. He also addressed economics, nature, love, history, and journey. Conversely, Eliot focused on themes like tranquility, regeneration, mortality, and alienation (Monson 140). He liked topics that could communicate the uncertain psychological state of humanity during the twentieth century.
Conclusion
New and young artists emerged during the modernist era coming up with unique styles and techniques of writing. Among the many writers emerging during this period, the two greatest ones were T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, who pioneered modernism. In comparison, the two artists left America and relocated to Europe. The two writers agree that past literary work is integral to present art. Ezra Pound worked on Eliot’s work and restructured it into a more acceptable poem free of errors. T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land was long and ambiguous hence the intervention from Pound per his [Eliot’s] request.
However, Eliot and Ezra contrasted several times as they followed different paths toward attaining their full potential. Among the two, Ezra was skilled more and was asked by Eliot to restructure the poem he had already written. The two [Ezra and Eliot] writers adopted different writing techniques and styles, which they elaborated more in their two respective approaches, the theory of imagism and the tenet of impersonality. Ezra and Eliot also focused on varying themes they saw fit to address in their respective works of art.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. “James Baldwin, the Art of Fiction.” The Paris Review, Interview by Jordan Ergably, 1984. Web.
Bashota, Halil, and Vlera Ejupi. Imagist Poetry of the Twentieth Century American Poets: Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and Hilda Doolittle. 2019, pp. 1–8. Web.
Devi, Konjengbam Indira, and H. Nanikumar Singha. “Discussion on T.S. Eliot’s Poetic Theory: A Review.” International Journal of Linguistics and Literature (IJLL), vol. 7, no. 3, 2018, pp. 19–25. Web.
Monson, Jane. British Prose Poetry: The Poems without Lines. Cham, Springer International Publishing : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 1-147. Web.
Odom, Nicholas. Borrowing Time: The Classical Tradition in the Poetic Theories of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. 2019, pp. 1–43. Web.
Staten, Henry. “The Artist’s Touch.” Techne Theory: A New Language for Art, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, pp. 3–13. Web.
—. “The Techne Standpoint.” Techne Theory: A New Language for Art, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, pp. 33-42. Web.