Lamb or Tiger? Non-Human Face of God in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot and R.S. Thomas Cover Image

Baranek czy tygrys? Nie-ludzkie oblicza Boga w poezji T.S. Eliota i R.S. Thomasa
Lamb or Tiger? Non-Human Face of God in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot and R.S. Thomas

Author(s): Małgorzata Grzegorzewska
Subject(s): Comparative Study of Literature, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Religion, British Literature, American Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: T.S. Eliot; R.S. Thomas; speaking picture; apophatic theology; animal imagery; post-secular thought;

Summary/Abstract: The text illustrates the changes in representations of the Invisible in religious poetry: the crisis of language caused by the rejection of the idea of the Logos in Western culture leads to the obscuring of the symbolic transparency present in the sacred art created in the medieval and early modern period. The traditional animal imagery used in the past to illustrate the mysteries of the faith is replaced in twentieth-century poetry by opaque representations of the non-human face of God. The argument is illustrated by reference to the “speaking” and simultaneously “mute” pictures in the poetry of T.S. Eliot and the Welsh poet R.S. Thomas. The poems of Thomas, which reveal clear traces of apophatic theology, can be viewed as a response to the challenges of the post-secular age.

  • Issue Year: 15/2018
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 305-320
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish