Literature and Society
1. Prolegomena The purpose of this book is to examine anew and from a number of different perspectives the highly complex and controversial relation between literature and society. This is not meant to be a study in sociology or political science; the ana
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LITERATURE AND SOCIETY by
CHARLES 1. GLICKSBERG
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1972
© 1972 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands. All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN-13:978-94-010-2772-4 001: 10.1 007/978-94-010-2770-0
e-ISBN-13:978-94-010-2770-0
To Herbert Neuman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
INTRODUCTION
PART I:
ASOCIAL LITERATORE A. Expressionism and the Aesthetics of the Absurd Chapter I. Chapter II.
The Asocial Writer A Trinity of the Absurd
17
19 19 31
B. The Revolt Against Society: Anarchism, Alienation, the Beat
Ethic and Madness Chapter III. Chapter IV.
The Individual versus Society Revolt and Madness
46 46 57
PART II:
THE LITERATURE OF SOCIAL CRITICISM A. The Voice of Social Criticism Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.
The Problem of Definition Shaw the Social Prophet The Social Conscience of the Thirties The Social Criticism of John Dos Passos The Moral Commitment of John Steinbeck The Socioeconomic Motif in the Literature of the Angry Young Men
B. The Literature of Social Protest Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
XI. XII. XIII. XIV.
The The The The
Call of Conscience Nemesis of War Atomic Holocaust Kingdom of Nightmare and Death
73 75 75 83 93
106 118
125 139 139
148
156 168
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VIII
PART III:
THE LITERATURE OF SOCIAL COMMITMENT Chapter xv. Chapter XVI. Chapter XVII. Chapter XVIII.
The Politics of the Writer Ignazio Silone: the Revolutionary Turned Saint The Epic Theater of Bertolt Brecht The Cult of Socialist Realism
189 191 198 207 221
PART IV:
CONCLUSION Chapter XIX.
INDEX
Conclusion
241 243 257
INTRODUCTION
1. Prolegomena The purpose of this book is to examine anew and from a number of different perspectives the highly complex and controversial relation between literature and society. This is not meant to be a study in sociology or political science; the analysis of literature - its structure, content, function, and effect - is our primary concern. What we shall try to find out is how the imaginative work is rooted in and grows out of the parent social body, to what extent it is influenced in subject matter as well as form and technique by the dominant climate of ideas in a given historical period, and to what degree and in what manner literature "influences" the society to which it is addressed. The stream of literary influence is of course difficult to trace to its putative source, for here we are not dealing, as in science, with isolated physical phenomena which can be fitted precisely within some cause-and-effect pattern. The relationship between literature and society is far more subtle and complex than social scientists or cultural critics commonly assume. Obviously literature does not operate in a vacuum; it is preeminently a social act as well as a social product. A book must be brought out under the aegis of some publishers, unless it is paid for and printed by the author himself, as Whitman did when he issued the firs
