(Urban) Sacred Places and Profane Spaces—Theological Topography in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

Verena Keidel

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55269-5_3

(Urban) Sacred Places and Profane Spaces—Theological Topography in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

Verena Keidel^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

This paper investigates the interconnectedness of space and sacredness in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land by drawing on Augustine’s understanding of the city as spiritual entity as well as more recent sociological readings of sacred space being produced through religious practice. I argue that London’s cityscape in Eliot’s poem recalls the Augustinian idea of urban space as a spiritual state, while it also points to the social dimension of material sacred sites: The poem’s portrayal of ecclesiastical buildings demonstrates the social effects of the negation of communal (church) ritual, but it also stresses the benefits of a successful production of sacredness and numinous beauty by social practices in an otherwise spiritually depraved environment.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies : Narrating Spaces, Reading Urbanity
Editors	Martin Kindermann, Rebekka Rohleder
Number of pages	20
Place of Publication	Cham
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date	2020
Pages	45-64
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-55268-8
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-55269-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55269-5_3
Publication status	Published - 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Research areas and keywords

Cultural studies

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-55269-5_3

Cite this

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(Urban) Sacred Places and Profane Spaces—Theological Topography in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. / Keidel, Verena.
Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies: Narrating Spaces, Reading Urbanity. ed. / Martin Kindermann; Rebekka Rohleder. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. p. 45-64 (Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies).

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Chapter › peer-review

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AB - This paper investigates the interconnectedness of space and sacredness in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land by drawing on Augustine’s understanding of the city as spiritual entity as well as more recent sociological readings of sacred space being produced through religious practice. I argue that London’s cityscape in Eliot’s poem recalls the Augustinian idea of urban space as a spiritual state, while it also points to the social dimension of material sacred sites: The poem’s portrayal of ecclesiastical buildings demonstrates the social effects of the negation of communal (church) ritual, but it also stresses the benefits of a successful production of sacredness and numinous beauty by social practices in an otherwise spiritually depraved environment.

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(Urban) Sacred Places and Profane Spaces—Theological Topography in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Research areas and keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this