Why “Proletarian” Literature?
. . Given this situation, what role does creative literature have to play? What should dissatisfied writers do? Some, hostile to the horrors of western civilization, pursue an political art for its own sake. For example, some follow the tradition of the distilled, precise poetry of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, John Crowe Ransom, etc. According to these “high modernists”, “A poem should not mean but be.” (Archibald MacLeish) This literary position, established by the New Critics in the 1950’s in reaction against the angry proletarian literature of the 1930’s, is still very influential. Other dissatisfied writers pursue individualism to its extreme and produce absurdist works which show anger but embody no way forward for the masses. Examples of this tradition are the Beat writers Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Jack Kerouac, or international figures such as Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. Their works have great influence but offer little direction. In a third category fall the many disc
Related Questions
- What is a good strategy to use when reading a book that consistently uses four syllable words? By the time I read 30 pages, I will have developed an awful headache. Im not sure how I can get through my assignment.
- "Friends for Life" examines friendship, especially when were different.
- Why "Proletarian" Literature?
