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le Prize for literature in 1948,but also the most influential English poet and critic in this century, occupied anirreplaceable position in literary theory and creation. Although it is his The WasteLand that made him known by people all over the world at that time, which is also themost important masterpiece of Eliot. This thesis pays special attention to his The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock, because it is Eliot’s first important poem and the summitwork of his early poetry. It breaks through the traditional poetical model in its theme,style, language, techniques, psychological description and so on. And it also paves theway for the birth of The Waste Land. As for Eliot’s impersonal poetry theory andtraditional view, his “Tradition and Individual Talent” is the best elucidation.Eliot, as a universally acknowledged master of Modern poetry, is a great poetand literary critic who leads the western poetic circles for decades. His influence hasbecome an inseparable part of his literary value. The Waste Land (1922) started a newdirection in the development of English poetry and established his position in modernpoetry. Eliot indeed has unique perspectives and puts forward a new criterion ofliterary criticism and tastes. His prolific works and unique critical thoughts attracts anunprecedented literary revolution, exerts a wide and deep influences on latergeneration, as well as changes the literary interests of his generation.Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, into a distinguishedfamily. His father was a successful businessman and his mother was once ambitious tobe a poet. He received education at Harvard University and then Oxford University.He was quite familiar with French, Italian, English literature, as well as Sanskrit. In1915 Eliot got married and settled down in London and eventually got a Britishcitizenship in 1927. It was during this time that Pound encouraged him, helped himedit and publish his poems. His first important poem, The Love Song of J. AlfredPrufrock, appeared in Chicago’s Poetry magazine in 1915. In 1917 his first smallvolume of poetry, Prufrock and Other Observations, was published. After 1922 hisefforts were focused on literary criticism. His relatively conservative critical essaysare as influential as his poetry. In his famous Essay “Tradition and the IndividualTalent”, he argues that the poet must have historical sense and have to learn from thedead poet. “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone” (538). Hestill points out his theory of impersonal poetry that the progress of an artist is acontinual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. Eliot is also a notableplaywright. He wrote seven plays, among which, Murder in the Cathedral (1935), TheCocktail Party (1949) are the best-known. Eliot’s major achievement in play writinghas been the creation of a verse drama in the twentieth century to express the ideasand actions of modern society with the new accents of contemporary speech (Zhang504). Eliot received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948 and the United StatesPresidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. He died in 1965, in London.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This thesis is engaged in analyzing Nabokov and Eliot’s aesthetic thoughts andits embodiment in their works to explore the tension in their formalism andformalistic writings. Therefore, it is necessary to review what the previous scholarshave done so th