How does T.S. Eliot define the term 'tradition'?
Eliot's conception of tradition is a 'dynamic' one. To him, tradition is not anything fixed and static. It is constantly changing. It continuously grows and becomes different from what it is. A writer in the present must seek guidance from the past. He must conform to the literary tradition.
Eliot says that the past directs and guides the present. In the same way, the present alters and modifies the past. When a new work of art is created, the whole literary tradition is modified slightly. The relationship between the past and the present is not one-sided. It is a reciprocal relationship. The past directs the present. It is also modified and altered by the present. Every great poet like Virgil, Dante or Shakespeare, adds something to the literary tradition out of which the future poetry will be written.
Read More-
