Allusions in Context
From The Waste Land Wiki
(→Looking at Allusions with Gephi) |
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| − | Let’s begin by looking at “The Wasteland” by itself. Network A is a network of the allusions from the poem ( | + | Let’s begin by looking at “The Wasteland” by itself. Network A is a network of the allusions from the poem (see [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]), with the allusions nodes clustered in the middle, the sections of the poem along the bottom, and the types of allusions at the top. Clearly, some types of allusions are far less frequent in the poem than others. For instance, Jews and Gentiles are the only allusions associated with the category “group” [of people]. However, there are clearly a lot more references in the poem to places, religion, and literature. Place includes landmarks, cities, and countries; religion includes references to Christianity, Greek mythology, Buddhism, and mysticism; literature includes poetry and prose from contemporary authors and some from the past. Apparently, these are the traditions that Eliot most heavily relies on to aid his readers in the understanding of his poem. |
Identifying these patterns opens up new questions about the nature of the allusions that may never have been asked without visualizing the information in this way. For example, knowing that there are so many subtypes of religious allusions, it might be helpful to picture what that distribution might look like. | Identifying these patterns opens up new questions about the nature of the allusions that may never have been asked without visualizing the information in this way. For example, knowing that there are so many subtypes of religious allusions, it might be helpful to picture what that distribution might look like. | ||
