T S Eliot & Antisemitism

T.S Eliot said ‘Poetry is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality’, but what of his own personality and more specifically the charges levelled against him of Anti-Semitism? Join us this Wednesday and decide where you stand on both Eliot, and the linking of the art to the artist more generally.

Eliot is regarded as one of the seminal poets of the 20th and 21st centuries, but despite this he was plagued throughout his later years by charges of anti-Semitism. So if we acknowledge Eliot as Anti-Semitic, how do we then find space for his work in the current climate of racial inclusion and should we even try? Duncan McGibbon, poet, gives an outline of Eliot’s beliefs and the problems faced by contemporary audiences as regards a serious breach of tolerance.
Duncan Mcgibbon is a published poet who has given many readings and talks, both at BRLSI and in the community.