Eliot on Artistic Change
example · T.S. Eliot ·
retold in 6 talks
T.S. Eliot’s claim that new art changes the past, which Žižek uses to argue the past is 'open' and actualized by the present, not just re-interpreted.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 5
“every new phenomenon really new in art changes the entire past makes it readable in a new way”18:47 Slavoj Zizek's "THE PARALLAX OF LACK AND SURPLUS IN POLITICS" (LACK V, 2025)2025-03-15 · 1:28:55
“each new work of art changes the entire past also. The past appears in a different way.”46:08 Slavoj Zizek - Buddhism, happiness and sacrifice day 02 audience questionspub. 2023-04-23 · 49:52
“every true new work of art doesn't only introduce a break with the past, but in some sense... it changes the past”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Colin McGinn1Michael Albert1Henry Corbin1Ibn Arabi1Pontius Pilatus1Raffaele Nogaro1Josef Krips1Pontalis1
alongside works
Every retelling 5
18:47 Slavoj Zizek's "THE PARALLAX OF LACK AND SURPLUS IN POLITICS" (LACK V, 2025)2025-03-15 · 1:28:55
T.S. Eliot’s claim that new art changes the past, which Žižek uses to argue the past is 'open' and actualized by the present, not just re-interpreted., illustrating past is open,blind spot actualized
46:08 Slavoj Zizek - Buddhism, happiness and sacrifice day 02 audience questionspub. 2023-04-23 · 49:52
Žižek cites Eliot's argument that each new work of art retroactively changes how the entire past appears, the positive mode of retroactive causality, showing the past is not fixed but altered by new events., illustrating retroactive causality
Žižek cites Eliot's conservative insight that every genuinely new work of art retroactively reshapes the entire tradition, not in reality but in symbolic space. Used to argue that present concepts legitimately illuminate the past., illustrating eternity of ideas,retroactivity,historicism
Citing Eliot that a new work of art changes the meaning of the entire past, paralleling the theological concept of retroactivity., illustrating The Fall retroactively creates Paradise
Žižek quotes T.S. Eliot that every new work of art changes the entire past history of art, using this to explain retroactive meaning in quantum physics., illustrating retroactive determination,cinema-art-culture