Since its publication in 1915, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has sparked debate and captivated for its dramatic portrait of failure, fragmentation, and alienation conveyed through the speaking voice of the character giving his name to the poem. However, critics have failed to acknowledge that the source of the “Prufrock complex”, as Eliot himself defined it, is not a split between body and mind and a yearning for communication, but rather is the body standing in constant interaction with the external excitations and the internal affects produced by the encounter with reality. The tensions clustered around the body will be thus here examined to shift towards a Bergsonian reading suggesting that, despite his philosophical address in 1913 undermining the foundations of Henri Bergson’s approach, Eliot continued to dialogue and interact with these epistemological principles in his early poetical production.
Delving Into the ‘Prufrock complex’: Corporeal Tensions and Affect in T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
Andrea Lupi
2023-01-01
Abstract
Since its publication in 1915, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has sparked debate and captivated for its dramatic portrait of failure, fragmentation, and alienation conveyed through the speaking voice of the character giving his name to the poem. However, critics have failed to acknowledge that the source of the “Prufrock complex”, as Eliot himself defined it, is not a split between body and mind and a yearning for communication, but rather is the body standing in constant interaction with the external excitations and the internal affects produced by the encounter with reality. The tensions clustered around the body will be thus here examined to shift towards a Bergsonian reading suggesting that, despite his philosophical address in 1913 undermining the foundations of Henri Bergson’s approach, Eliot continued to dialogue and interact with these epistemological principles in his early poetical production.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
