Crushing the boundaries of civilised language and gesture : the primitive urges in T.S.Eliot's The waste land and Ballet Russes' The rite of spring

Abstract

The following dissertation will be a comparative analysis of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and The Rite of Spring - a ballet produced through the joint effort of Igor Stravinsky as composer, Nicholas Roerich as costume and set designer and of particular emphasis, Vaslav Nijinsky as choreographer. The works are brought together through close-reading, and through the analysis of both artists' interests, and return to, the primitive. Both Eliot and Nijinsky along with their poetry and choreography respectively, are placed within the context of the modern age in which they lived in order to bring out their common ideals. The primitive is taken as a starting point, and later, the analysis will delve deeper, the discussion taking on a more thematic approach. Ultimately, it can be proven that one work is the translation of the other, one artist working with words, and the other working the body and movement: just as Nijinsky's dancers were uncomfortable in the positions and movements he choreographed, Eliot's language sits uncomfortably, seems to fail, in its place and purpose though in reality, the fragments that form both The Rite of Spring and The Waste Land evoke feelings and emotions never before explored.