Professor David Peimer
T.S. Eliot: Visionary Poetry, Ordinary Prejudices
Summary
T.S. Eliot was one of the truly great poets of the 20th century. He was a modernist, a visionary who sensed the pressures of his disillusioned age. He also had his prejudices including the usual stereotypes of Jewish people. We will look at his poetry and vision, in all the complexity of being a man of his time and ask: how does his poetry resonate in our darkening times today?
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
No, as I mentioned, he tried to enlist but was not allowed in. But he did try, once the Americans came into the war.
I think it’s a great question, Sandra. I think that he saw traditionally individual talent that essay where he talks about the classical, the tradition of the great penon of English literature. But how the individual, the tradition and the individual talent, the individual talent must take that, absorb it and take it further or make something new from that, Cannot write pretending a naivety about past literature, but take it, be imbued within deep inside it and take it much further. I think it was that paradoxical link.
That’s a great question. I mean, there’s so many possible. We can only speculate. We can only speculate, was it Christianity? Was it the Christ killing? Was it money? The stereotype of money and user was the stereotype. Oh, there’s so many possibilities.