Poetry as Decreation: Impersonality and Grace in T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This thesis posits that however separated T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil are by circumstance, political affinity, and church affiliation, their thoughts intersect at a crucial point. While Weil’s theory of decreation and Eliot’s notion of impersonality are often cast as theological and poetic innovations, they both hearken back to the Christian mystical tradition – specifically, the aspect of via negativa. Placed alongside one another, Weil’s poetic mysticism and Eliot’s concern for the spiritual reveal the capacity of poems to decreate and bring the reader to a moment of void that awaits the fulfillment of grace. This thesis will study these topics with express consideration of Eliot’s Four Quartets and Weil’s notebooks, especially Gravity and Grace.

Type of resource	text
Date created	June 2019

Subject	T.S. Eliot
Subject	Simone Weil
Subject	decreation
Subject	impersonality
Subject	grace
Subject	theology
Subject	poetry
Subject	St. John of the Cross
Subject	Christian mysticism
Subject	mysticism
Subject	Gravity and Grace
Subject	Four Quartets
Subject	The Waste Land
Subject	Via Negativa
Subject	Negative Theology
Subject	George Herbert
Subject	Department of English at Stanford University
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	catholicism
Subject	void
Subject	imagination
Subject	apophatic
Subject	kenosis
Subject	post-secular.
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/zn778zs6599

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Preferred Citation: King, Emily Ming. (2019). Poetry as Decreation: Impersonality and Grace in T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/zn778zs6599

Stanford University, Department of English, Undergraduate Honors Theses

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