Theory In Practice: The Waste Land

For all its status as a classic text of literary modernism, and despite the mountain of commentary it has provoked since its publication in 1922, The Waste Land has lost none of its power to excite, disturb and infuriate, and continues to pose a fresh challenge to each new generation of readers and critics. Does the poem articulate a coherent ideology or subjectivity, or is it no more than a heap of poignant and enigmatic fragments? What are readers to make of its bewildering array of voices, idioms, languages? This collection of newly-commissioned essays brings a range of contemporary critical perspectives to bear on these and other questions, offering readings that are both theoretically-informed and closely attentive to the language and structure of the poem. Each essays outlines a theoretical position and context and defines the key terms and concepts to be used, before developing a reading that demonstrates their practical implications for interpretation and unders