Fotografie miasta nierzeczywistego. Obraz Ziemi Jałowej w Goodbye to Berlin Christophera Isherwooda

Abstract

Christopher Isherwood differs from T.S. Eliot in many respects, but there are also striking similarities between his Goodbye to Berlin and Eliot’s The Waste Land as far as the structure, use of imagery and ideas are concerned. Both writers use a technique which reminds one of that used in film-making, it has numerous shifts from shot to shot. There are similarities in the kinds of situations and types of people depicted in the two works as well as in the general tone and atmosphere. It is, however, the central underlying metaphor which brings Isherwood’s book close to Eliot’s poem: Goodbye to Berlin is, in a sense, a version of The Waste Land. The connection between the two works does not necessarily prove that Isherwood was directly inspired by or consciously imitated The Waste Land, but it certainly provides evidence to the fact that the impact of the image of the waste land on the modern consciousness has been very great indeed and it shows how widespread its use has become.