T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form, Second Edition

Of the many different kinds of anti-Semite, Eliot was the one who was able to place his anti-Semitism at the service of his art. Anthony Julius’s highly acclaimed study looks both at the detail of Eliot’s deployment of anti-Semite discourse and at the role it played in his greater literary undertaking. Julius begins with an analysis of Eliot’s anti-Semitic poems that situates them in their critical context. He then moves to the prose work and an examination of the figure of the “free-thinking Jew.” Finally, he considers whether, as has elsewhere been suggested, Eliot’s postwar work made amends for this aspect of his earlier writings. Julius’s seminal study has provoked a reassessment of Eliot’s work among poets, scholars, critics, and readers that will continue to invigorate debate for years to come. For this second edition, Julius has provided a new preface and postscript responding to the arguments used by friendly and hostile reviewers alike and demonstrating that Eliot’s anti-Semitism remains a subject of considerable importance for literary historians and readers of Eliot’s poetry alike.