View source for Archival Evidence

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An important aspect of any literary analysis is the investigation of the context in which the text under consideration was created. In many cases, the context of a work can be extremely helpful to its understanding. This is exactly the case with T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” Specifically, looking at the literary magazines ''The Dial'' and ''The Criterion'' in which the poem was originally published in 1922 offers the modern reader a glimpse into the mind of Eliot and his contemporary audience. This type of knowledge cannot but aid in the analysis of the poem’s content and meaning. An examination of this poem’s context as presented in ''The Dial'' and ''The Criterion'' yields a few interesting discoveries. Some of these include the relationship between the physical layout of the poem and its meaning, the influence of globalization at the time, and the thematic coherence within many of the works published alongside “The Waste Land.”

==Structure of the Poem==
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A close side by side reading of "The Waste Land" as it appears in the 1922 October issue of ''The Criterion'' and 1922 November issue of ''The Dial'' beg inquiries as to the organicism of the texts--is either edition more inherently Eliot?  Do the slightly different versions of the poem reveal editorial constructs or bias in keeping with "American" or "British" literary doctrines?  It is difficult to conceive, and perhaps impossible to finger any specific text as more canonical than the other.  In fact, the ''Norton Critical Edition'''s editor, Michael North, posits that the Boni and Liveright edition (which was released in December of the same year) "should have priority" (Norton XII).

Nevertheless, an analysis of both of the original publications reveals an additional layer of complexity to a scholarly investigation of Eliot's most famous poem.  Despite minor inconsistencies, a more holistic understanding of Eliot's work emerges--the unifying principle enveloping "The Waste Land" is that truth, though affected by and altogether vulnerable to external circumstance or will, is canonized by its textual integrity.

It is important to note that Eliot was actually serving as an editor for ''The Criterion'' during the time when his poem, "The Waste Land" was published.  Interestingly, it was in ''The Dial'' that "The Waste Land" was headlined before other literary contributions.  Although the location of the poem's debut may have been more ideal in the American publication, it is worth questioning whether Eliot had more direct authority over the format of the poem as it appears in ''The Criterion''.

Although the differences in pagination are slight, they are noteworthy, especially considering the fact that Eliot may have been directly connected to the pagination of ''The Criterion''.  In particular, breaks between the stanzas in ''The Criterion'' appear more frequently than in ''The Dial''.  A reading of the poem in ''The Criterion'' is markedly easier than in ''The Dial'', perhaps due to the intentional pauses incorporated multiple spaces throughout.  Another difference in the format of ''The Dial'' is found where various first lines are aligned on the right side of the page.  In ''The Criterion'', these lines are indented much further than normal, but they do not appear to have been structured as chaotically.  Whereas the format of ''The Criterion'' seems to emphasize clarity and order, the format affixed to the poem in The Dial may indicate preconceptions on the part of the American editor concerning Eliot's style.  The co-author of this page makes this hypothesis in part because the American format is reminiscent of earlier American poetry (i.e. Whitman) which utilized long lines and large stanzas.  Perhaps the American editor simply produced "The Waste Land" in the way he best knew how--as a dramatic, narrative poem.

The editorial differences between ''The Dial'' and ''The Criterion'' are enshrouded in further mystery.  In ''The Dial'', there is an epigraph for the poem that relays dialogue taken from the ''Satyricon''(Eliot 373).   For some reason, this part of the poem was completely deleted from ''The Criterion'' (Eliot 50).  Of course, a structure of the poem that was deleted in ''The Dial'''s edition is the enumeration of specific sections (ie. A Game of Chess I).  Similarly, the American editor italicized any usage of foreign language in the poem; however, ''The Criterion'' maintains a regular font for any European language utilized by Eliot.  There is no explanation or admittance of these variances in the text.

==Globalization==
In both ''The Dial'' and ''The Criterion'', evidence of globalization and cross-cultural receptivity abounds.  This is more evident in ''The Dial'', especially upon inspection of its advertisements.  Though the collaborators were surprised not to find any ads juxtaposed alongside text, ''The Dial'' instead allocated primary and secondary sections--at the front and back of the periodical respectively--for commercial bulletins.  In the first section of advertisements that precedes the literary text, the editor installed ads for literary publishers of modernist books and a magazine.  It is clear that ''The Dial'' specifically targeted a bibliophile audience, as the majority of all the periodical's ads cater to an intellectual and spatial readership.

''The Dial'''s advertisements reveal multicultural intrigue, albeit, from a safe distance.  In the supplementary section of advertisements there is evidence of a great deal of upper-class marketing.  Solicitors invite readers to Oriental rug wholesalers, jewelry dealers, Russian tea rooms, Spanish themed vacations, patronage to The Plaza hotel in New York and Boston, and to purchase multi-volume literary collections from such venerated authors as Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad.  Though the advertisements do suggest a post-war fascination with the exotic, they also implicate intellectual and societal elitism.  One may inquire whether the "worldly" audience could have included the minorities it so fancifully publicized.

This marks a fascination with the globalization that began as a result of WWI. Soldiers had traveled abroad and seen alternative forms of society function.  Not only was there an increased aesthetic interest in global commodities, but these magazines indicate that there was an incresed interest in intellectual diversity. For example, in ''The Dial'', there are multiple European contributors, including Austrian author, Arthur Schnitzler, whose novel ''Doctor Graesler'' was translated from German into English for this publication.  Other contributors to the New York magazine were either European, or were Americans relocated to Europe.  Robert Delaunay was the French artist, whose modern-gothic painting is reproduced beside ''The Dial'''s debut of "The Waste Land."  Delaunay was an avant-gard, Orphism artist, thus, the selection by editors to include his art within ''The Dial'' is in keeping with the culture of curiosity demonstrated by the New York readership.

==Thematic Coherence==
A thorough investigation of every bit of content in either ''The Criterion'' or ''The Dial'', let alone in both, would be an overwhelming task. Therefore, this particular project is most interested in finding obvious similarities in thematic content that can be gathered from brief exposure to each of the included pieces. The most apparent and most frequent shared themes include death, the First World War, fertility and sterility, and a kind of distrust in authority and Western culture. Often, it is difficult to separate one thematic element from another; they are tied together intertextually and intratextually between and in most of the pieces as much as they are in “The Waste Land.” It is worth noting that by October 1922, the war had been over for nearly four years. However, it is clear from this thematic overlap in the rest of the magazines’ content that Eliot was not the only individual still interested in the war’s aftermath and long-term effects on society.

In ''The Dial'', there is an installment of the novel ''Doctor Graesler'' by Arthur Schnitzler, in which much of the conflict is driven by sexual jealousy and the fear of adultery. Likewise, in ''The Criterion'', part of May Sinclair’s "The Victim" is included. In this story, which is set during the War, the main character, Steven, is in love with a woman whom his master persuades to leave forever. Because of this, Steven is ultimately driven to murder his master. The men in these stories are left alone by women, or in other words, they are left sterile, because they no longer have a partner to allow for the manifestation of their potential fertility, so they act out on this feeing of abandoment. This resonates with the pub scene of “The Waste Land” (lines 140-172) when the speaker indicates that she took the pleasure of Lil’s husband’s sexuality since Lil had rejected her own fertility with an attempted abortion of his child. “What you get married for if you don’t want children?” must have been on the minds of many who felt the loss of a considerable portion of men at the reproductive stage of life from their society (Eliot 164). Still, it is interesting that Schnitzler and Sinclair present men rather than women as their forcedly sterile characters.

T. Sturge Moore, who wrote an essay about “The Story of Tristram and Isolt in Modern Poetry” for the same edition of ''The Criterion'', brings some middle ground to this question. He acknowledges that Tristram’s and Isolt’s situation “forced illegal passion on” both of them (Moore 35). That is to say, both sexes suffer when they are deprived of an outlet for their passions. Still he asks, “Is adultery ever to be condoned?” (Moore 35). The tension Moore recognizes between people’s need to be fertile and the question of its inherent “rightness” is relevant to what Eliot is exploring in “The Waste Land.” Humanity’s distrust in or even “divorce” from nature and natural law that Eliot depicts as a result of the war must include a questioning of the previously accepted paradigm of right and wrong. One image from “The Waste Land”—“a heap of broken images” (Eliot 22)—can be applied as a description to what the poem itself is, what society looks like after the war, and what people’s current perception of the former order is.

Furthermore, Hermann Hesse eloquently sums up the reason these three themes tend to be so connected in the post-war environment. In his essay “Recent German Poetry” from ''The Criterion'', he explains that the experience of the Great War entailed “the collapse of all the old forms and the breakdown of moral codes and cultures hitherto valid” (Hesse 90). Because of this, the new generation must create its own “codes” that will work differently since something as awful as a World War is a conceivable reality. He goes on to enumerate “the two central interests of youth”: “rebellion against authority and against the culture of that authority in process of downfall; and eroticism” (Hesse 90). Hesse, too, sees a relationship between fertility issues, distrust in society/authority, and the War. From all the thematic overlap in these two magazines with the content of “The Waste Land,” it only makes sense to admit that Eliot’s poem is not a thing to be read in isolation from its context. Since the other literary pieces treat some of the same subjects, it is fair to assume that those subjects were primary concerns of the scholarly class in both America and Europe. Familiarizing oneself with these contextual similarities allows a reader of “The Waste Land” to focus in on what would have been most important to Eliot’s contemporary audience, and perhaps to understand more successfully what meaning Eliot wants to transmit through the poem.

==Additional Areas of Interest for Further Investigation==
We are surprised to have found some of the things that are in the Dial in an American publication in 1922. For example: Adolph Dehn's "Drinkers" - a painting of alcoholic beverages and their consumption. In 1922, Prohibition was still in effect in the United States. We were surprised that a literary magazine that is geared toward intellectuals would contain content that depicts something illegal.

In ''The Criterion'' there is an essay entitled "The 'Ulysses' of James Joyce" by Valery Larbaud. An editor's note to the title reads: "This essay...is still the best introduction that has been offered to Mr. Joyce's book" (Larbaud 94). The first two sentences of the essay itself acknowledge that only "the cultivated reader who can fully appreciate such authors as Rabelais, Montaigne, and Descartes" and who has "The Odyssey clearly in mind" will be able to read the book with any understanding or pleasure (Larbaud 94). This is especially interesting because "The Waste Land" is written similarly to "Ulysses" in that it depends so much on the reader's understanding of the canon of English literary tradition. Perhaps essays written about "The Waste Land" in other publications will use similar introductions to advise readers of what they should expect. This might be cool to look into, even with different anthologies' introductions to the poem.

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As noted above, the Norton Critical Edition's editor, Michael North, posits that the Boni and Liveright edition "should have priority" over both of these premiere editions (Norton XII). It would be worthwhile to investigate later editions (including those listed in the photo) for changes in format (or anything) that might be significant.

==Works Cited==

Dehn, Aloph. "Drinkers." ''The Dial'' Nov. 1922: 548-549. Print.

Eliot, T.S. "The Waste Land." ''Norton Anthology of American Literature.'' Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 1587-1599. Print. In-text citations are by line numbers.

Hesse, Hermann. "Recent German Poetry." ''The Criterion'' Oct. 1922: 89-93. Print.

Larbaud, Valery. "The 'Ulysses' of James Joyce." ''The Criterion'' Oct. 1922: 94-103. Print.

Moore, T. Sturge. "The Story of Tristram and Isolt in Modern Poetry." ''The Criterion'' Oct. 1922: 34-49. Print.

Schnitzler, Arthur. "Doctor Graesler." ''The Dial'' Nov. 1922: 509-524. Print.

Sinclair, May. "The Victim." ''The Criterion'' Oct. 1922: 65-88. Print.

The Waste Land - 50-64 The Criterion.

Criterion 472-485