• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Hoping to Turn Again: Faith, Hope and Love in TS Eliot's Middle Period

Module description

This Masters-level module will enable you to explore the evolution of TS Eliot’s poetry from ‘The Hollow Men’ to ‘Four Quartets’, and what the poetry implies about Eliot’s own spirituality, and more broadly about the human spiritual search. It will include consideration of the poet’s recently released letters to Emily Hale, and secondary literature responding to them. It would therefore be of interest to you if you are a student in theology, cultural studies, or English literature.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to:

• Introduce you to Eliot’s biography in the period 1925-42, with particular attention to his commitment to Anglicanism, and his friendship with Emily Hale
• Enable you to undertake close reading of a series of Eliot’s poems and verse dramas in the period, and relate them to the biographical work
• Enable you to generate theological inferences from what the texts show about Eliot’s understanding of the spiritual search.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Give a sophisticated account of the interaction between Eliot’s life, faith and work in the period
• 2. Argue theologically about spiritual inferences to be gained from Eliot’s verse

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Interpret creatively inferences about theology and spirituality arising out of a biographically-informed reading of the set texts
• 4. Provide nuanced and sophisticated readings of selected texts

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Formulate a learning plan, including critical evaluation and creative proposals
• 6. Research secondary sources, making judicious use of online material
• 7. Present interim conclusions and discuss them with others with openness and respect

Syllabus plan

The syllabus is likely to include an introduction to Eliot’s life and work, followed by close readings of key sections of his verse from the period 1925-42. Inferences will be explored as to the relation between faith, hope and love in Eliot’s life in this period, and what might be learned from this about the human spiritual search.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Eliot, T.S., The Complete Poems and Plays (London: Faber and Faber, 1962)

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Crawford, Robert, Eliot after the Waste Land (London: Penguin, 2022).
• Gardner, Helen, The Composition of Four Quartets (London: Faber and Faber, 1978).
• Gordon, Lyndall, The Hyacinth Girl (London: Virago, 2022).
• Ricks, Christopher and McCue, Jim (eds), The Poems of T.S. Eliot, Volume I (London: Faber and Faber, 2015).

Key words search

T.S. Eliot; Emily Hale; poetry; biography; spirituality