ENG3705
ASSIGNMENT NO: 01
THE WASTE LAND
YEAR : 2024
, LOLA JACOBS ASSIGNMENTS © 2024
Assignment: The Waste Land
Semester 1
Important: Read the chapter entitled “Wilderness of Mirrors: Perspectives on the
Twentieth Century” (available as an e-reserve on the library website), in which Brooker
discusses some of the influences and ideas prevalent in Western thought in the early
twentieth century, before attempting this question.
Additional activities – worth 5% extra!
1. Summarise Brooker’s chapter in your own words.
2. After reading the assignment question, how do you think you might be able to use this
chapter to support your argument?
3. The age of generative AI is changing the way we write. Many students now try to use
AI to generate responses to assignment questions instead of doing the work
themselves. Why is this problematic?
4. Write a paragraph in which you reflect on what you hope to learn in this course, and
why using generative AI would prevent you from reaching those goals.
5. Write a paragraph in which you explain why students should not plagiarise in
assignments.
In ‘Wilderness of Mirrors: Perspectives on the Twentieth Century’, Brooker argues that
artists in the twentieth century were trying to redefine the limits of their medium:
[t]he parallel in the literary arts is an evasion of time, and this is attempted
by abandoning the principles governing point of view and by abandoning
narrative (p. 23-24).
In an essay of 1200-1500 words, discuss to what extent you agree with this argument as
applied to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. In your answer, refer to any one section of the
poem specifically to support your argument.
THE ESSAY:
Brooker's argument in "Wilderness of Mirrors: Perspectives on the Twentieth Century"
suggests that artists in the twentieth century, including T.S. Eliot, sought to redefine the
limits of their medium by evading traditional principles governing their art forms.
Specifically, Brooker highlights the parallel between visual arts and literature: while visual
artists tried to avoid presenting three-dimensional space, literary artists attempted to
evade time by abandoning principles of point of view and narrative.