Navigating Fragmented Poetics in T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men: A Camusian Exploration of Existential Hollowness and the Absurd

This study employs an interdisciplinary synthesis of modernist literary theory and Albert Camus’s philosophy of the absurd, as articulated in The Myth of Sisyphus (۱۹۴۲), to interrogate T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men (۱۹۲۵) and its embodiment of existential hollowness as a precursor to existentialist thought. Addressing four research questions, the analysis explores how Eliot’s fragmented poetics parallel Camus’s absurd, enact the tension between human desire and cosmic indifference, illuminate paralysis and cultural allusions through a Camusian lens, and position the poem as a bridge between modernism and existentialism. The poem’s disjointed structure and “stuffed men” paradox (Eliot, ۱۹۶۳, p. ۷۷) reflect Camus’s absurd confrontation with cosmic silence (Camus, ۱۹۵۵, p. ۳۱); oxymorons like “Shape without form” and repetitions like “prickly pear” (Eliot, ۱۹۶۳, pp. ۷۹–۸۰) underscore desire’s futility; paralysis and allusions to Dante and Guy Fawkes (Eliot, ۱۹۶۳, pp. ۷۷, ۸۰–۸۱) signify existential failure against Camus’s call for revolt (Camus, ۱۹۵۵, p. ۵۵); and the “whimper” ending (Eliot, ۱۹۶۳, p. ۸۲) anticipates existentialism but resists Camus’s clarity through Christian ambiguity. This study reveals The Hollow Men as a contested nexus of literary and philosophical discourses, challenging modernist readings and enriching existential scholarship by illuminating Eliot’s navigation of meaninglessness.

کلیدواژه ها:

modernist poetry ، existential hollowness ، absurd philosophy ، fragmented poetics ، cultural allusions