Truth in Literature

Abstract

Drawing upon the Lacanian theory of the impossibility of the sexual relationship in the speaking being, I trace the methodological strategies of constructing this non-rapport in Eliot’s poetry. Almost all of Eliot's published poems, including The Waste Land, eight volumes of Eliot’s letters and his biographies are examined, as also most of Eliot's uncollected poems and his little-known bawdy verses. There is a clear duality in representation of women in Eliot's poetry — either they are 'whores' associated with filthiness, waste and moral degradation, or they are the beatific vision of the virginal goddess who is the unattainable object of courtly love. I argue what is common to both these representations is the moral repugnance about sexual encounters and the overwhelming acceptance of the sexual non-rapport. Waste and courtly love become two obstacles to the sexual relationship in Eliot's poems, and it is around them that the strategy of instituting the non-rapport is constructed.