Abstract

The article investigates to what extent metaphysics may shape literary criticism and in how far a discursive mode of thought may mould critical concepts. these issues are discussed in the context of t s eliot's early criticism. the first part of the article shows how eliot envisaged the assembling of speculative ideas inside literary criticism. the second part offers an analysis of the parallelism between the key terms of eliot's criticism and the philosophical concepts gathered from his dissertation of f h bradley. this leads to an assessment of the precise nature of eliot's criticism as the cognitive elucidation of the transition from artistic sensibility to artistic expression