The Study of Space in T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

Abstract

The thesis at hand thematically studies the variety of spaces depicted in T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land”. The aim is to analyze the role of experience in the construction of literary space and discover how that space functions according to the themes of the poem. The introduction gives an overview of the literary significance of “The Waste Land” and defines the scope of the thesis. The literature review discusses previous academic research about the poem, explains the background of modernist space, and provides the theories for the empirical analysis by outlining the major works of what has come to be called the spatial turn. The empirical part of the thesis first explains the combined methodology created on the basis of the theories by Yi-Fu Tuan and Edward William Soja. The following subchapters focus on the portrayal of physical and literary space within “The Waste Land”, in which the analysis of space is divided according to the five sections of the poem. The conclusion of the thesis presents the main findings of the analysis.