We follow a Monday schedule
today.
In the interim, consider
the major changes in Socialist theory outlined by Wilson. What is
he suggesting ought to be the basis of civil society, and how does
literature contribute to that aim? Should literature or criticism
contribute to that aim; if so, how? and by whose authority do we
judge?
Consider the portrait
of Lenin reading Chekhov, "Ward No. 6." Consider, too,
Wilson's racializing of Lenin and Marx (pp. 372-73, p. 428)? Is
there anything of Marxist theory left in Wilson's 1940 summation?
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How was Wilson's
book received by readers in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's? Who was
reading it?
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READ
1) To the Finland
Station , Edmund Wilson (NYRB, 2003), pp. 199-484.
2) Marxism and Literary
Criticism, Terry Eagleton (Univ. California, 1976).
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