Alcala 1958

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lite rature. They mus t con seq uen tlybe kep t in mi nd when we eva lua te an y lite rar y work. Ha vin g in min d the his tor ical deve lop­ me nt of literaryjudgme nt andthe dom ina nt inf luen ce s dis cus sed in thi s pap er, you mi gh t want to sha re in a few though ts I ha ve on the cont emp orar ysce ne. You kno w, the re are app rox ima tely 2000 new boo ks per month pub lish edin Ameri ca. A che ck­ ing of the se public ati ons woul d in my op ini onrev eal som e cha rac ter isti csas mo st fre quent and common . Th ese are the ones that I enc oun ter. A sur pri singamo unt of literary ma ter ial, both lon g and shor t, is pre occ upi ed wit h det ail . Eug ene O'N eill 's intr odu ctio ns to ea ch sce ne of hi s plays are per hap s ou r mo st notewort hy sample of this . Eve n the cas ua l reader of Th e Na ked an d the Dea d and Fr om Her e to Et ern ity cou ld not esc ape be ingstruck by thi s fea tur e. Th e her o no long er occ up ies hi s trad i­ tional pos itio n. He is act ed upon rath er than act ing. More oft en than not he is the vehic le through whi ch we study the gro up , ins tea dof be ing the pro tag oni st ofthe wh ole work. In an actu al sens e the town of Pe yt on Pla ce usurps the role of a her o. A sim ila r usu rpa tionoccurs in No rmanMa iler 's Th e Na ke dand the Dea d where in the mo un tai n is the "ela n vita l." 6 Tim es, pla ces and eve nts loom larg er than the me n in our cur ren t boo ks. It is as if the ancie nt arg ument of whe the r men make the eve nts in his tor y or eve ntsmake the men in histor yha d bee n ans wer edonc e and for all . To day's literatur e mir ror s mu ch of the ins ecu rit ythat per vad essoc iet y. This psy ­ cho log ica lphe nomenonis int ens ifie dby the almost pat hol ogi cal con cer n with what is sor did and mor ose. Eve n the dis int ere ste d lea fing through the pa ge s of a Te nness ee Willi am s play will pro duc e a my ria d of ca ses in poi nt. Ba by Dol l, TheRos e Tat to o, A Str ee tca rName d De sire, Ca t on a Ho t 6 C f. Bergso n. 113 e tly te t y . i g ical - f literary t and t l ences se , t t t ry . , r i ately li e ica. - li ations io l teri tics as e t . the ones t r. risi g ial, ied il. il 's ction l . l ity c t g e. ies i- l . i . f i le , t o i t of l . l ton . r tion ' d i tain i 6 , place t t e t t y ed . ' r e s rity e y. - l ical e ified logical _ i . ,· t . ere ted fi a s e il e i d . l, he tto , i , .

are rem ind edthat sty le must fit the sub jec t mat ter an d that the re are acc ording lytwo sty les . He ca lls the first on e the "g ran d sty le, " rese rve d for the her oic , the nob le and the tra gic . Exam ple sof thi s are Hom er's Ili ad, Vi rg il's Ae neid , Mil ton's Pa radise Lost an dGoe the 's Fa us t. Th e sec ond sty le of Arn old is what he term s the "le sse r mann er, " wh ich right ­ ful ly use s the song , the ball ad, the lyr ic and the come dy . By "g rand"and "les ser" the re is no t impli eda gra dation in art, but rat her wh at is fit tin gan d prop er to sp ec ifi c sub ject matt ers .We would sur ely no t expe ct a light bit of po etr y to be exp res sed in Home ric dic tion. Am ongtyp es of de fec tiv estyl e, firs t p lac e go es to ove rta xed imag er y. Ar tifi calaff ec­ tati ons are clo se runners -up. John Rus kin spoke out mos t bit ter ly on thes e two. An­ other anno yanc ein sty le is the bom bas tic. We sho uld not ne ed to do mor e than men ­ tion tha t oth ers in the lon g lin e of poo r sty les are fau lty gramm ar,muddl eddic tion , unr eas ona blear gume nt and lack of un ity betwee n coh ere nc ean d form. Ev ery ag e and ev er y place pro duc e a liter atu re tha t stems from them selv es. In a sen se ev ery ag egets the lead ers it des erve s and in the same bre ath the art and litera­ ture it des erv es. Ou r wor ld is stil l cau gh t in the thr oes of a gi ga nt ictran sformat ion . The domi nantinf lue nc esupon our pre sen t so cie ty an d lite rat ureare KarlMar x andhi s doc trin e of dia lec tic alma ter iali sm,Charles Da rwin and the sub seq uentthe orie sof bio­ log ica land so cia ldet erm ini smthr ough evo ­ luti on, Sig mu ndFre ud and h ispri nci ple s of psy cho ana lys is,an d Alb ert Ein stei n, whose theory of rel ati vit y ha s help ed to pro duc e the ato mi cbom b wi th its atte nda ntcult ural overto nes . It is qu ite pos sib le that a fifth for ce is func tio ning . It is repr esen ted by suc h as Alb ert Sw eit zer 's life and work. The se fou r an d po ssi bly fiv e mo vem ents are at the bac kgr oundof our con tempor ary ed t l i ly t l . t e reserved for oic, the l d gi . ples ' , il's neid, 's st. l l er," - l , , i dy. " a there is l e ti rather wha i g a ific j atters. l ect y se ric i . g t tive , l ce xe ery. tifical - s-up. l - yance l stic. l - r" l l ar, e , e sonable ent nce . y e t r re l es. s - e . t tic t ation. nt nces u t t and t re arl M h i e l tical iali , l i uent t i - l l ini - , nd i p ipl of P analy i , n , tivity L e ic ll t l ne . i l tioning. te ' . l t o nd ary i