『네 사중주』와 성경시학: 역사의 신화학

Abstract

This thesis is to examine biblical poetics, which deals with the many biblical echoes and rhetoric of paradox in T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Biblical poetics, the counterpart of biblical theology, tries to mystify history in the poetic text, as opposed to the theologizing of biblical history. Time and history are of great importance in the poetry of T. S. Eliot and in the modernistic milieu, because modernism hinges, in a sense, upon the dispensation of history. Eliot, the champion of the 20th century poetry, tries to mythify the present history by means of a mystical method, assuming that modern history itself is not fit for poetry. Malinowski rightly defines myth as not of the nature of fiction, but instead as a living truth, believed to have once happened in primitive times and continue influencing our everyday lives. In this paper the present writer tries to describe the process of transformation of history in four phases, that is, carpe diem, which can be roughly transliterated as “seize the day,” the rejected history, the deconstructed time, and finally the transfigured time. “Burnt Norton” prefaces the problem of the redemption of history, agreeing with the biblical time concept that all history is divine history. “East Coker”, as the rejected history, reveals the painful confession of the poet in terms of death, not only of ours but also of Jesus Christ. His death is the most rejected and paradoxical of all deaths, because he was rejected by his people and even his Father. In turn, through this death, history is rejected. “Dry Salvages” demonstrates time by decreating time and starting a movement backward to the time of creation. While portraying the sea, one of the motifs of “Dry Salvages,” he mentions both the original sea, which “is” from the beginning and the Logos, Jesus Christ, who “was” from the beginning. The incarnation is the crux of paradoxical events, where the impossible union is accomplished. His resurrection is the paradox of paradoxes, in which the rejected history is deconstructed with life-giving Eros springing forth from abyssal Thanatos. “Little Gidding” breaks the air with flames of fire, urging us to choose between the flames of fire and of the Holy Spirit to be saved. Beginning with the Pentecostal fire, time starts to be so completely transformed that here is “England and nowhere, never and always.” The event on the mountain of transfiguration is the most paradoxical and transformational of events, substantiating history into myth where time and eternity meet. The voyagers must continue going forward until they receive the transfigured vision of the place from which he started.