Eliot’s Concept of Culture & its Relevance in the 21st Century

Abstract

Eliot has experienced the emotional and spiritual sterility of the modern world and found the fast decay of finer cultures in contemporary society. He felt the isolation of the present from the past values, and he felt the need for the presence of the 'pastness of the past'. He thought that the present malady was the decay of a rich culture. He was also aware of the misconception of the term culture and its gross misuse. To Eliot, culture is the culture of the individual, of the group and the culture of the society. A culture which does not talk about any relation to these three senses is not culture. In 'Notes,' Eliot depicts the malady of the modern scene of cultural disintegration. It is painful for him to see that all cultural activities are divorced from each other, and the artistic sensibility is impoverished by its divorce from the religious sensibility. According to Eliot, indifference to any activity of culture is undoubtedly a mark of the decline of culture. This paper intends to find the relevance of Eliot's concept of culture in the present juncture of time.