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Professor Vincenz Serrano
FA-CW 112.1
26 February 2016
T.S Eliots The Waste Land: An Annotated Bibliography
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Texas UP: Austin, 1991. Print.
In his book, Bakhtin talks about the concept of heteroglossia which employs a variety of
speech types, voices and genres to construct the novel in a structured artistic system. He states
that there are always multiple voices even within a single perspective and that because of this;
the readers are left with a feeling of unfamiliarity. This occurs because the reader sees the novel
unfold, not only through his or her perspective, but through the perspectives of others as well.
Despite this there is still a sense of cohesion through artistic organization.
Although Bahktins discussion on heteroglossia is primarily concerned with the novel he
still proves to be a valuable source for three reasons. Firstly, the concept of heteroglossia is
something that is very much present in The Waste Land given how one of the poems hallmark
features is its multiple speakers and perspectives and shifting narratives. Secondly, his concept
on having an artistic organization in spite of a texts multiplicity is helpful when it comes to
working out some form of textual cohesion in The Waste Land. And thirdly, his remarks on
heteroglossia provide a springboard for discussions regarding the shift in poetic composition
from an expression of the poets voice to a heteroglot presentation of a variety of voices.

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Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. Ed. Rolf Tiedmann. Trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin
McLaughlin. Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press,
1999. PDF.
Conceived in Paris in 1927 and still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in
1940, The Arcades Project is a mosaic of fragments, quotations and commentaries on nineteenth
century Parisian arcades (glass-roofed rows of shops that were early centers of consumerism).
One of the chiefs concerns of the project was the idea of progress which is something that
Benjamin considers as unsatisfactory given how it immediately supposes an automatic linear
evolution towards an inevitable goal. He claims that an alternative model of history is required
instead of history and progress as a straight line, he devises the image of the constellation. The
concept of the constellation appears several times in The Arcades Project as a symbol of the
relationship where the historian places a number of apparently unrelated historical events in
significant conjecturethus past events are either linked with each other or to the present. This
formation in turn, incites a flash of recognition.
Interestingly enough, the critique of linear progress and the image of the constellation are
discussed and even expounded on in The Theses on the Philosophy of History, which gives the
impression that it is a methodological complement to The Arcades Project. It also makes one
think that perhaps, the Theses, in a sense, systematizes or demonstrates the non-linear model of
history he posited in The Arcades Project, given how it is grounded in interrelation rather than
sequence.
Benjamins concept of constellation would be a valuable source in the research given
how it shares similarities with Dillons palimpsestic theory. In the same way that a historian must
link seemingly unrelated events, palimpsestic texts interweave several unrelated and even

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competing elements together in a single text. The constellation concept also seems to result in a
disruption of time, in the creation of a space where past and present interact. Similarly, the
palimpsestic texts are also spaces where past and present interact given how remnants of the old
texts remain. It is also a source that is useful when it comes to discussion regarding the form in
which Eliot recasts his historical knowledge.
Benjamin, Walter. Theses on the Philosophy of History. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections.
Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968.
PDF.
In Benjamins enigmatic but endlessly suggestive essay, he discusses a new concept of
history and concomitantly, a new concept of the present. In Thesis A, he discusses his
dissatisfaction with the idea that every historical event is derived from a linear cause and effect
relationship and rejects the notion that all events together constitute a continuous, progressive
motion. He states that he is unsatisfied with telling the sequence of events like the beads of a
rosary. In Thesis IX, he gives us the cryptic image of an angel being propelled forward to the
future by progress and yet its face is turned towards the past, towards not a chain of events but
one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his
feet. In the same vein of his dissatisfaction with continuous, temporal motion, this passage
seems to posit that Benjamin views historical progression as a cruel illusion, given that he rejects
the idea of the past as a continuum of progress.
Similar to The Arcades Project, this offers a wonderful comparison with the palimpsestic
theory since the concept of constellation and palimpsests both share similar principles.
Benjamins discussion of the angel being involuntarily blown to the future but still looking at the

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past is also something that is strikingly similar with the tone the poem evokesthat of a longing
for the past as time and modernization inevitably moves forward.
Dillon, Sarah. The Palimpsest: Literature, Criticism and Theory. London: Continuum, 2007.
PDF.
In the book, Dillon explores palimpsests and the way they lend themselves as a device for
critical inquiry. She uses the palimpsest as a metaphor to describe a medium (or a surface as
she calls it) that like a palimpsest, has been re-used, erased or altered while containing traces of
its earlier form. By extension, it is also taken to mean something that not only reflects history but
also has diverse, convoluted layersunrelated texts that compete, infiltrate and are interwoven
with one anotherthat are apparent beneath its surface. Although the layering that occurs within
the palimpsest was born out of the need to erase previous texts for re-use, the re-emergence of
those destroyed texts renders a structure that privileges heterogeinity and diversity. Thus, the
palimpsest has a dual nature in the sense that it preserves the distinctiveness of individual texts
and exposing the contamination of one text to the other.
The text is very helpful since it clarifies what the palimpsestic form is and can be used in
the research as a guide in demonstrating how Eliot renders his literary and global historical
knowledge in such form. The idea of the palimpsest as a form where both past and present
interact is also a concept that Benjamin discusses in The Arcade Projects and can be used as to
discuss the non-chronological historical knowledge of Eliot.

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Genette, Garard. Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree. Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press,
1997. Print.
In Genettes book, he examines several hypertexts that constitute what he calls open
structuralism. He focuses on the texts very closure, the relationships within itself to see how
they reread and rewrite one another. His concept of bricolageof making something new with
something olddemonstrates how the hypertextual work plays literary element or discourse
against each other which leads to a surprising illumination of each individual element. Much like
Dillon, he sees hypertexts as a palimpsest, a surface in which unrelated texts are interwoven or
inscribed on top of each other so much so that both erasure and preservation of previous texts in
one specific piece.
Genettes assertion that palimpsests allow individual literary discourses against each
other is interesting given how it is very similar Rollasons assertion that Benjamins
fragmentation allows for a single aspect or element of the text to have greater potential for
generating meaning. While Dillon is more concerned with how individual elements of a text
contaminate each other, Genette is interested how the interplay of different literary discourses
lead to an illumination of each other through the relational principle.
The text, like Dillons book, is helpful because it offers a slightly different aspect of the
palimpsestic form and can used to demonstrate the structure and form in which Eliot renders his
historical awareness and knowledge.

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Ileto, Reynaldo. Outlines of Non-Linear Emplotment in Philippine History. Reflections on
Development of Southeast Asia. Ed. Lim Tec Ghee. Singapore: Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies, 1988. 130-159. Print.
In this essay, Ileto states that the work of a historian is like a cutting operation. He
considers this an act of ambivalence because it not only requires the act of remembering
meaningful details for the historical event but also forgetting elements that are deemed
dissonant, disorderly, irrational, archaic, subversiveelements that are essentially seen as
things that will run contrary to the trajectory of the historians linear narrative. For Ileto, an
alternative history should give equal status to interruptions, repetitions and reversal; this means
that a historian must recognize archaic and dissonant elements which have little chance of being
written into developmental models of linear history and reorganize them in a way that highlights
reversals, interruptions and fragmentation.
In a sense, both Ileto and Benjamin share similar views in that they both see the
importance of a non-linear model of history and value fragmentation and reversals. While
Benjamins alternative model of history is the image of the constellation, Iletos is one that calls
for the reinstatement of repetitions and interruptions.
The source is useful in parts of the research that are about the dynamics of the past and
present as seen in Eliots poem and provides a springboard of discussion regarding the form in
which Eliot recasts his historical knowledge. It is especially relevant given how a big preoccupation in the poem seems to be memory and the longing for the full-blown revival of the
glorious past.

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Rollason, Christopher. The Passageways of Paris: Walter Benjamins Arcade Project and
Contemporary Cultural Debate in the West. Modern Critcism. New Delhi: Atlantic
Publishers, 2002. 262-297. Print.
According to Rollason, Benjamins principle of constellation is infused not only in his
thought but also the very structure of his magnum opus, The Arcades Project. Although the
fragments of the text appear on the page in a linear fashion, they illuminate each other through a
relational principlemeanings are generated through cross-reference and dialogue between the
different sections of the book. Conversely, no single fragment can acquire its full potential for
generating meaning unless it is placed in relation with the larger whole. For Rollason,
Benjamins fragmentation and constellation is not for its own sake but rather but a breakingdown of history into piecespieces that the reader can re-assemble into a new whole, a new
constellation that can illuminate the future.
His view is similar to that of Genette which states that an individual element of the text
generates more meaning when placed in relation to competing or seemingly unrelated texts.
Rollasons assertion of Benjamins fragmentation as something that leads to illumination
and perhaps even cohesion would be an interesting addition to the research paper given how it
puts forth the possibility that perhaps the fragmentation and constellation of voices and
narratives in the poem is what forms the artistic structure Bahktin was talking about.

Name: Maria Lelaina R. Cardeo

Word Count: 1845