In one of the readings I read this week, I especially pay attention to the observations and philosophy of the archive from Foucault's point of view. According to Foucault, the archive is described in fragments, regions and levels and observing; and tracking the archive will therefore require taking into account the discontinuities that separate us. from what we can no longer perceive (p.130). And I feel that this is reflected in “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot, which is composed of fragmentary and seemingly unrelated parts, which reflects the reflection of modern society and the collapse of traditional information.

Another element I found relevant to “The Waste Land” this week was the use of intertextuality in the transitions of statements. It is clear that the poem is a collection of references, allusions, quotations to many different literary sources, from which I think that “The Waste Land” itself is an archive in the modern period.

Additionally, Foucault's discussion of the historical a priori suggests that the archive is a temporal boundary surrounding our presence, which I think is relevant to the exploration of history in “ The Waste Land”. There is no doubt that the poem puts the past and present together, mentioning the influence of history and tradition on present reality. Foucault said that “that we are difference, that our reason is the difference of discourses, our history the difference of times, our selves the difference of masks” (p.131). It is this concept that is metioned again and again in “The Waste Land” by depicting a world of cultural, social, and spiritual fragmentation, where meanings are constantly shifting and unstable.