University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1976 CONCERN AND CRAFT: THE "PARTISAN REVIEW" AND THE 1930S FRED BLAINE METTING Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation METTING, FRED BLAINE, "CONCERN AND CRAFT: THE "PARTISAN REVIEW" AND THE 1930S" (1976). Doctoral Dissertations. 1123. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1123 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 76-23,130 METTING, Fred Blaine, 1946- CONCERN AND CRAFT: THE PARTISAN REVIEW AND THE 1930s. -------- University of New Hampshire, Ph.D., 1976 Literature, American Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 CONCERN AND CRAFT: THE PARTISAN REVIEW AND THE 1930s by FRED METTING B.S., Ohio University, 1968 M.A., Kent State University, 1971 A THESIS Sxibmitted to the University ol' New Hampshire In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate School Department of English May, 1976 This thesis has been examined and approved. Thesis director, Phil/ip Nicoloff, Prof. of English Gary E$ndberg, Asso-s- of. of English Hugh Potter, Asst. Prof. of English Robert Mennel, Asso. Prof. of History i John Kayser,r? 'Asso. Prof. of Political Science May 15, 1976 Date TABLE OP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 I. ERE-DERRESSION LITERARY RADICALISM .............. 6 II. THE DEPRESSION AND THE RESPONSE OP THE INTELLECTUAL L E P T ............................... 26 III. ARTISTS IN UNIFORM: THE NEW MASSES ............. 61 IV. THE PARTISAN REVIEW: ITS CRITICAL CONCERNS H 3 V. THE PARTISAN REVIEW: ITS FICTIONAL LEGACY 150 CONCLUSION....................................... 203 ei i. ABSTRACT CONCERN AND CRAFT: THE PARTISAN REVIEW AND THE 1930s ■by FRED NETTING The decade of the 1930s Drought forth notable achieve­ ments in American literature including vivid realism in the novel, documentary strength in journalism, and exciting collective experimentation in the theatre. Despite this vitality, literary work of the decade has often been misun­ derstood or neglected. This study is intended as a corrective to that misunderstanding and neglect. Specifically, this is a study of the American literary journal Partisan Review, from its inception, in 1934, to 1940. This study emphasizes the dual nature of the critical concerns and fictional offerings of the journal. The Partisan Review stressed both radical social concern and artistic craft. In its criticism it sought to establish and promote a literature revolutionary in content but free of formula and cliche. This promotion was accomplished by stressing variety, style, tradition, and experimentation. In its fiction columns the Partisan Review offered a forum for artists intent on exploring social realities with inde­ pendence and freedom. This forum attracted artists with considerable skill; John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, and James Agee were among those writers who contributed memorable fiction to the Partisan Review of the 1950s. The Partisan Review epitomizes a pattern of thought that was widely accepted among depression intellectuals. This dual emphasis on concern and craft provides a touchstone which can be used to evaluate and appreciate a great deal of the decade's work. Of course there was excess and abuse; the New Masses and the sectarianism of this journal serves as a foil to the much less rigid Partisan Review. But, on the whole, this study illustrates that the intellectuals of the decade moved left in the political spectrum while main­ taining their artistic integrity. This study, then, documents this radical political outlook and artistic integrity in the Partisan Review. Hopefully, an appreciative understanding of this key journal will lead to further interest in the literary achievements of this vital decade. INTRODUCTION I am glad that the literature of the thirties is being re-examined.... The great danger of the decade was political dogmatism, to which many lesser writers succumbed but to which the great writers rose above. Its great virtue was strength of feeling, which in literature, is not negligible. Granville Hicks A closer look at the magazines and newspapers of the thirties, as well as the fiction and reportage, strengthens the notion that the writing is too diverse and reflective of too many points of view to lend itself to easy formulations. Daniel Aaron To a considerable degree, the mind of twentieth- century America is best revealed in the nation's magazines, for these supply the most immediate record of the debates and tensions that have swept the intellectual community. This was particularly true in the 1930s, where man;/ of the books and novels published during the decade appeared first as journal articles. More important, the magazines provided a forum for collective experimentation, dialogue, and criticism at a time when events often threatened to overwhelm the solitary winter. Thus the journals became a crucial channel through which intellectuals could raise issues, test ideas, refine their arguments, and comment directly on the problems of the day. Richard Pells Looking "back on the 1930s three decades later, community organizer Saul Alinsky remarked that that time "may have been our most creative period. It was a decade of involvement. It's a cold world now. It was a hot world then.""*' In my study of American literature I have been drawn to the fiction of the 1930s because of this "heat," this creative engagement characteristic of the literature of that decade. I find this literature to be pragmatic; it is the author's response to social and econo­ mic problems. Yet this literature is honest and flexible enough to preserve artistic integrity and variety. However, my appetite for this artful social fiction was rarely satisfied within my formal academic study. The literature of the 1930s was often neglected entirely or dismissed as political propaganda. As I disregarded the taboos and studied this era on my own, I found that other students of the literature of the depression voiced a similar dissatisfaction with our understanding of that period. There was a general agreement that the many years of formalist critical bias and anti-communist ideology had resulted in distortion of the literary achievements of the depression generation. Many of these students of the 1930s have called for a re-evaluation of that decade's literature. 2 My attraction to the literature of the 1930s and dissatisfaction with the academic neglect of that era led to this work, a study of the American literary journal 3- Partisan Review, from its inception, in 1934-, to 194-0. I telieve that the criticism and fiction of the Partisan Review epitomize the strengths and virtues of the decade's best work. This journal provided a forum for intellectuals and artists who sought to explore the economic and social realities of the depression with the free creative imagina­ tion. The journal proclaimed a radical social vision; yet its independence lifted its art from dogma and cliche. I regard this study as important for several reasons. First, the fiction and. criticism of the Partisan Review can stand alone as examples of the vigorous art of an important, long-lived, and influential journal. Second, this journal can serve as a key to the most important works and movements of the decade, for the Partisan Review drew to its pages John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, James Agee, and many other artists who desired to create a relevant yet independent art. As its editors said, the journal "lived the life of its times." Third, a study of this journal can correct misconceptions of the decade, which many view as a time when naive naturalism and dogma mas­ queraded as art.