Comparative Literature and Criticism

Abstract

This dissertation examines four works of literature that aim to draw a comparative discussion of the followings: Tradition and Individual Talent By T.S Eliot with A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf and Little by Treuer with The House Made of Dawn by Momaday. The comparison is being held by using different approaches such as comparative close reading and historical criticism to decipher the texts. In T. S Eliot’s and Woolf’s chapter, the dissertation first examines each text individually in their construction of tradition from an artistic perspective that leads to a comparative discussion by the end of the chapter. The literary comparison demonstrates how they differ in the way they define tradition and approach its concept. In A Room of One’s Own, Woolf harshly and sarcastically criticizes the unjust tradition of English society in restricting the progress of women’s writing and creativity as well as the role of previous masculine literature, biased literature that formed and wrote the history in a way where women were excluded from the literary canon. On the other hand, Eliot emphasizes the importance of altering the literature of precursors to add value and greatness to contemporary poets or artists, with the belief that they created the base of literature and contemporary authors are an extension or continuation of them. The second comparative chapter deals with two works of Native Americans’ dilemmas, the role of history in creating their identities and the failure of America’s falsified democracy. First, each novel is examined individually to address racial inequality and its repercussions on the main characters. Afterward, the overlaps of the texts are pieced together in the comparative chapter along with highlighting the possible differences in each text.