THE WASTE LAND AS MAGIC INCANTATION / THE POET AS TRICKSTER WASTE LAND COMME INCANTATION MAGIQUE

This paper demonstrates that T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land is a magic incantation to restore the lost values of the Western culture on realistic foundations. The poem’s intertextuality, together with its versification are analyzed in order to show Eliot’s view on Western man’s history: one of sin, fall and increasing decay. The main argument is that, through his poem, Eliot is attempting to restore humanity and its destiny away from the sad history in which it was cast from the beginning.