Journal of new advances in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Journal of new advances in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Navigating Fragmented Poetics in T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men: A Camusian Exploration of Existential Hollowness and the Absurd

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Fars Education Department, Ministry of Education, Fasa, Iran
10.22034/jeltal.2026.8.1.4
Abstract
This study employs an interdisciplinary synthesis of modernist literary theory and Albert Camus’s philosophy of the absurd, as articulated in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), to interrogate T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men (1925) and its embodiment of existential hollowness as a precursor to existentialist thought. Addressing four research questions, the analysis explores how Eliot’s fragmented poetics parallel Camus’s absurd, enact the tension between human desire and cosmic indifference, illuminate paralysis and cultural allusions through a Camusian lens, and position the poem as a bridge between modernism and existentialism. The poem’s disjointed structure and “stuffed men” paradox (Eliot, 1963, p. 77) reflect Camus’s absurd confrontation with cosmic silence (Camus, 1955, p. 31); oxymorons like “Shape without form” and repetitions like “prickly pear” (Eliot, 1963, pp. 79–80) underscore desire’s futility; paralysis and allusions to Dante and Guy Fawkes (Eliot, 1963, pp. 77, 80–81) signify existential failure against Camus’s call for revolt (Camus, 1955, p. 55); and the “whimper” ending (Eliot, 1963, p. 82) anticipates existentialism but resists Camus’s clarity through Christian ambiguity. This study reveals The Hollow Men as a contested nexus of literary and philosophical discourses, challenging modernist readings and enriching existential scholarship by illuminating Eliot’s navigation of meaninglessness.
Keywords

Ackroyd, P. (1984). T.S. Eliot. Hamish Hamilton.
Art of Smart Education. (2023, June 16). How to analyse The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot for HSC English. https://artofsmart.com.au/english/the-hollow-men-analysis/
Balavage, E. (2021). Illumination, transformation, and nihilism: T. S. Eliot’s empty spaces. Journal of Modern Literature, 44(3), 35–48. https://doi.org/10.2979/jmodelite.44.3.03
Bennett, A., & Royle, N. (2016). An introduction to literature, criticism and theory (6th ed.). Routledge.
Brooker, J. S. (1985). Mastery and escape: T.S. Eliot and the dialectic of modernism. University of Massachusetts Press.
Brooker, J. S. (1994). Mastery and escape: T.S. Eliot and the dialectic of modernism. University of Massachusetts Press.
Camus, A. (1955). The myth of Sisyphus (J. O’Brien, Trans.). Vintage. (Original work published 1942)
Chinitz, D. E., & McDonald, G. (Eds.). (2014). A companion to modernist poetry. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118604427
Eagleton, T. (2013). How to read literature. Yale University Press.
Eliot, T. S. (1925). The Hollow Men. In Collected poems 1909–1962 (pp. 77–82). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Eliot, T. S. (1982). Tradition and the individual talent. Perspecta, 19, 36–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/1567048
Ellison, D. R. (1990). Understanding Albert Camus. (No Title).
Esslin, M. (1961). The theatre of the absurd. Doubleday.
Foley, J. (2008). Albert Camus: From the absurd to revolt. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Gardner, H. L. (1949). The art of T.S. Eliot. Cresset Press.
Gordon, L. (1998). T.S. Eliot: An imperfect life. W. W. Norton.
Howard, J. G. (2012). T. S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men. The Explicator, 70(1), 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2012.656736
Howarth, P. (2011). The Cambridge introduction to modernist poetry. Cambridge University Press.
Kamenov, D. (2020). “This final and defiant gesture”: The importance of C. Green in Thomas Wolfe’s You can’t go home again. Thomas Wolfe Review, 44(1–2), 153–161.
Leavis, F. R. (2015). New bearings in English poetry. Faber & Faber. (Original work published 1932)
Masarwah, N. (2015). The use of ancient myths in modern poetry: The myth of Sisyphus as a case study. European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 3(5), 10–22.
Moody, A. D. (1994). Thomas Stearns Eliot: Poet. Cambridge University Press.
Pani, P. (2013). Reflections on the existential philosophy in T.S. Eliot’s poetry. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 9(1), 301–316. https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/294
Pani, P. (2017). Metaphysical exile in T.S. Eliot and Albert Camus. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 40(1), 45–58.
Roston, M. (2000). Modernist patterns in literature and the visual arts. Macmillan.
Sharpe, T. (2014). T. S. Eliot: A literary life. Palgrave Macmillan.
Sherman, D. (2009). Camus. Wiley-Blackwell.
Southam, B. C. (1996). A guide to the selected poems of T. S. Eliot (6th ed.). Harcourt Brace.
Spender, S. (1975). T.S. Eliot. Viking Press.
Uddin, S. R., & Al Hasan, M. (n.d.). A Sartrean analysis of existential crisis and the fear of emptiness in T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men and Gerontion. [Manuscript available via academic repositories].
Williamson, G. (1998). A reader’s guide to T.S. Eliot: A poem-by-poem analysis. Syracuse University Press.
 
 
 
Volume 8, Issue 1
June 2026
Pages 76-106

  • Receive Date 22 October 2025
  • Revise Date 10 February 2026
  • Accept Date 18 February 2026