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From War to Contagion: An Exploration of the Philosophical Relevance of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land during the Times of Pandemic

Author

G Kavitha, Department of English Literature, English & Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, India.

 

With death sprouting like fungi and its fear spreading like the mycelium, the contemporary pandemic times mirror the pathetic state of the inhabitants of a bizarre post-war and postmodern realm called ‘The Waste Land.’ This paper attempts to unveil the existential challenges of humanity to grapple with the ambiance of death’s omnipresence during the Coronavirus catastrophe, concerning T. S. Eliot’s magnum opus, ‘The Waste Land.’ It highlights the portrayal of the dead and the living as ‘the walking dead’ and relates to the pandemic’s nature of overflowing graveyards that blur the boundaries between life and death. It also provides a philosophical inquiry into today’s human reality that is replete with spiritual hollowness and absolute hopelessness and ensures to remind the forgotten masses of the true essence of human existence- true for all times ranging from war to contagion.

Keywords: Contagion, Covid-19, Existential, Pandemic, Philosophical

References:

Eliot, T. S. ‘The Waste Land,’ Boni and Liveright, New York, 1922.

Pathirathna, Malshani. Et.al. ‘Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on suicidal attempts and death rates: a systematic review,’ BMC Psychiatry, Article number: p. 506, 28 July 2022.

Hentea, M. (2010). The Silence of the Last Poet: Matthew Arnold, T S Eliot, and the Value of the Classic. Modern Language Quarterly, 71(3), 297–328.

F.H. Bradley, ‘Appearance and Reality,’ Oxford, 1930, 306.

Eliot, T. S. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,’ 1915

Clayden, Andy. Et.al. ‘Natural Burial: Landscape, Practice and Experience,’ Routledge, 2015.

Pattali, Suresh. “Revisiting ‘The Waste Land’ by T. S. Eliot in times of Covid,” Khaleej Times, 2021.

Ghosh, Shirsak. ‘The Re-Appearance of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land in the Ties of Covid- 19 Pandemic,’ Journal of Positive School Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 6, 2022.

How to Cite

MLA 9th Edition 

Kavitha, G. “From War to Contagion: An Exploration of the Philosophical Relevance of T. S. Eliot’s the Waste Land During the Times of Pandemic.” BL COLLEGE JOURNAL, vol. 5, no. 2, Dec. 2023, pp. 107–14. https://doi.org/10.62106/blc2023v5i2e11 

 

APA 7th Edition

Kavitha, G. (2023). From War to Contagion: An Exploration of the Philosophical Relevance of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land during the Times of Pandemic. BL COLLEGE JOURNAL5(2), 107– 14. https://doi.org/10.62106/blc2023v5i2e11 

 

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