Start networking and exchanging professional insights

Register now or log in to join your professional community.

Follow

Do you think that Oscar Wilde's saying "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken" complements T.S. Eliot's notion of maintaining literary tradition while adding to it?

user-image
Question added by Mariam Eid , Marketing and Communications Manager , Executive Solutions
Date Posted: 2016/02/23
Abraham Markose Babu
by Abraham Markose Babu , Director , Mark Educational Consultancy

Yes. I think so. Eliot in his writings 'Tradition & Individual talent' asserts the value of tradition. Literary tradition has to be protected at all costs. You may add to it.

Deleted user
by Deleted user

Well yes, these are similar notions that being yourself does not mean losing anything in creating things or trying to add newer aspects

Yahia mohamed  Amen Gad
by Yahia mohamed Amen Gad , إدارة - مدرب - , سنابل الأجيال للتعليم والتدريب

Thank you for your invitation and I agree with Mr. Ahmed

Pradeep Sharma
by Pradeep Sharma , English Language Training Instructor , King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah (KSA)

Exactly. The statement very well sums up Eliot's idea of "tradition and individual talent." An artist going for innovation shows individual talent, which is very much required for arts to be interesting and in step with the times, and at the same time, even in the most innovative ideas there is a streak of tradition, a continuation and perpetuation of the established ideas. So, be innovative! 

مها شرف
by مها شرف , معلمة لغة عربية , وزارة التربية السورية

I agreement with answer Mr. Ahmad Saleh

Ahmad Saleh
by Ahmad Saleh , Part-time English Teacher , ITA

 Yes, I do agree. Reading Eliot's famous essay " Tradition and the Individual Talent", one is able to conclude that Eliot's view of "tradition" is a sublime one.While he encourages poets to adhere to the tradition that has both a "timeless" and a "temporal sense", he discourages them from that which implies blind imitation. We can also see him favouring "novelty" over "repetition", a preference that goes in harmony with Oscar's quote, where he stresses the fact that each one is unique when genuine and authentic. 

More Questions Like This