Eliot Agonistes: Fragments of a Dramatic Experiment

ABSTRACT: Almost from the beginning of his artistic parable, T.S. Eliot dedicated himself also to the third voice of poetry: drama (both as a playwright and as a critic).
He debuted with avant-garde, syncopated, experimental pastiches: the “Aristophanic fragments” of Sweeney Agonistes.
Pageant-like structure and progression, historical/medieval setting, contemporary themes characterize The Rock and Murder in the Cathedral, articulate pieces on social, ethical, and religious themes.
The “comic quartet” (The Family Reunion, The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk, The Elder Statesman) concluded his career as dramatist. Problematic psychological, spiritual, and religious themes, exacting self-examination, plots and characters inspired by Greek classical models characterize them.
Eliot wrote various critical studies on drama’s theoretical and practical aspects, structures, effects, language, and playwrights (ancient Greeks, Seneca, Shakespeare, Elizabethans, Jacobeans).
His is an uninterrupted dialogue between the poetic word and its practicability for dramatic speech, and the intertextual and thematic echoes between poetry and play.

Stefano Maria Casella has taught English and Anglo-American Literature (IULM University).
Publications: essays on T.S. Eliot; E. Pound; Modernism; comparative literature; environmental literature, eco-criticism. Translations of American and British poets.
Member: “Ezra Pound International Conference”, “International T.S. Eliot Society”. Speaker in various international Conferences (English, Anglo-American, comparative, environmental literature, eco-criticism, animal studies).
Visiting Fellowships: Clare Hall College (Cambridge), Heythrop College (London), The Bogliasco Foundation (New York).
Peer reviewer: Oxford U.P., Peter Lang, “A” class literary journals; Advisory Board: _Italian Americana_.