72 - 15,245 LONG, Terry Lester, 1936- THE RADICAL CRITICISM OF GRANVILLE HICKS IN THE 1930’S. The Ohio State University in Cooperation with Miami (Ohio) University, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THE RADICAL CRITICISM OP GRANVILLE HICKS IN THE 1 9 3 0 *S DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Terry L. Long, B. A. , M. A. Ohe Ohio State University 1971 Approved by A d v iser Department of English PLEASE NOTE: Some pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. Hicks and the 1930*s ....................................... 1 II. Granville Hicks: Liberal, 1927-1932 .... 31 III. Granville Hicks: Marxist, 1932-1939 .... 66 IV. Hicks on the Marxian Method................... 121 V. Hicks as a Marxian A nalyst ........................ 157 V I. The B reak With Communism and A f t e r ..... 233 VII. Hicks and Marxist Criticism in Perspective . 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................... 279 i i CHAPTER I HICKS AM5 THE 1930* s The world was aflame with troubles In the 1930fs. They were years of economic crisis, war, and political upheaval. America, as Tennessee Williams said, "... was matriculating in a school for the blind." They were years of bewilderment and frustration for the common man. For many American writers and thinkers, the events of the decade called for several changes from the twenties; a move to the political left, a concern for the misery of the masses, sympathy for the labor movement, support of the Communist Party, hope for Russia as a symbol of the future, fear and hatred of fascism. This was the Anpry Decade; these were The Fervent Years. Years of Protest. Hard Times; this was Puzzled America; so the books on the thirties tell us. Into this decade stepped an aspiring critic and college teacher who would be shaped by the events of the coming years and who would help to shape them on the American literary front. He was Granville Hicks j of New England stock and a Harvard graduate of the Class of 1923- Hicks carried with him from the twenties a set of liberal, pacifist, socialist views and a great interest in American literature. He hoped to use criticism as a way of Influencing literature 2 for the good of society. Hicks gradually immersed himself in the radical movement as the Depression deepened, and eventually he joined the Communist Party. He embraced the Marxist approach to literary criticism and to politics, and based his writing on Marxism from about 1932 until 1939# when the Stalin-H itler pact sent him and others scurrying out of the party, disappointed, betrayed, and embarrassed. Subsequently he modified many of his political and critical views but retained some of his views and his approaches to literature. This dissertation concerns the criticism of Hicks during his “radical11 years. A brief review of the social and political forces at work in the world during that turbulent era w ill help clarify the motives of men like Hicks, Most important in the shaping of the I9 3 0*s, of course, was the world economic collapse. The Depression led writers to concern themselves with social issues in their works—or to deny that they were obligated to do so. It led them to write about politics, rootless migrants, the labor movement, and fights for civil liberties. It led to literary debates and feuds over the social obligations of writers and the nature of art and its functions in society. But let us remind ourselves more concretely of these influences by looking at some of the historical testimony. Historians and economists s till do not agree on what touched off the panic of October, 1929# which led to the 3 stock market crash and the subsequent economic crisis. But a ll agree on t'lhat the results were: At first, many optimists made a forlorn effort to deny that the collapse in speculative values had very much bearing on the underlying business of the country, and to assert that the stock-market liquidation represented a loss only in inflated paper values. But prices dropped sharply, factories curtailed production or closed their doors, employers cut wages, men were thrown out of work, trade slackened, prices dropped s till further—and the American people found themselves in a major economic disaster. In 1931 7 m illion workers were unemployed.1 According to the American Economic Association, by March, 1932, unemployment stood between 11, 250,000 and 12, 5 0 0 , 000. The peak came in early 1933i estimates range from 14*,500,000 to more than 16,000,000, about a third of the work force. Even those who kept their jobs had difficulties because of reduced rates of pay and shortened work weeks. The average weekly earnings in certain Industries reporting to the National Industrial Conference Board had been above $28.50 in I 929 but had dropped to $22.64- by 1931. And hours were cut from an average above 4-8 per week in I 929 to 4-4- in 1930 and to only 38 in the last months of 1931. America was faced with starving people demanding relief. Documented reports published at the time show that many people were not getting enough to eat and some, in fact, were starving. The relief systems were locally controlled and locally handled. President Hoover would not concede the need for federal assistance in relief until the summer o f 1932, after three winters of depression, when the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was authorized to lend the states $300 million for relief. By the end of 1932 i t had lent only $30 m illion for relief, while in the meantime it had lent $90 m illion to a Chicago hank:, of which a former RFC chairman had been an officer. News stories of the time reported "hunger riots," such as one in Oklahoma City, one in Minneapolis, and another in St. Louis in 1931* Starving citizens organized and broke into food stores to get food. Millions of young people and entire families set out upon the highways and hopped freight trains in order to escape bad economic conditions and find work. The phenomena of the "Okies" migrating west and of young boy and girl tramps hopping trains are widely known. They were not the optim istic nomadic wanderers that America was used to, either. "Desperation," David.A. Shannon says, "rather than optimism, was the main characteristic of the nomads of the 1 9301 s . 1,2 The persons interviewed by Studs Terlcel for his book Hard Times testify to the bitter struggles, the disillusion­ ment, and the sense of social concern that many felt. Edward Santander, a college administrator and school teacher says, "My first real memories come about *31. It was simply a gut issue then: eating or not eating." Carey McWilliams, t editor of The Nation, remembers the businessmen^ reaction to the stock market crash: "After the stock market crash, some New lork editors suggested that hearings be held: 5 what had really caused the Depression? They were held. In retrospect, they make the finest comic reading. Hie leading Industrialists and hankers testified. They hadn’t the foggiest notion what had gone had. ." Virginia Durr, of a genteel Alabama family, tells how she changed her social outlook because of the Depression: People who were Independent, who thought they were masters and mistresses of their lives, were a ll of a sudden dependent on others. Relatives or relief. People of pride went into shock and sanltoriums. Up to this time, I had been a conformist, a Southern snob. I actually thought the only people who amounted to anything were the very small group which I belonged to.. What I learned during the Depression changed a ll that. I saw the world as it really was. Hie Depression affected people in two different ways. The great majority reacted by thinking money is the most important thing in the world. Ge-t yours. And get it for your children. Nothing else matters. Not having that stark terror come at you again. And there was a small number of people who felt the whole system was lousy. You have to change it. Terkel’s book is an engrossing and convincing collection of personal testimony.3 Economic collapse was not confined to America. The world felt the collapse of the American stock market. What had happened to business in America had also happened elsewhere. By 1933* world commodity prices had declined by a third compared to 1928, raw material prices by a half, and production Indices proportionately. Hie price of wheat at Winnipeg, Canada, was lower than it had been in a primary market for 400 years. National incomes in many nations had dropped by ^0 per cent. It was estimated that 30 m illion workers a ll over the world were unemployed. In Japan, which was closely tied to the American economy, trade had fallen by a third between 1929 and 1930, and unemployment was estimated to be from one to three m illion that year. Japan seized upon the American collapse to further her Interests in Asia; the first result was Japan’s invasion of Manchuria.** One great cause of the increase in m ilitary aggression during the 1930’s was the economic instability of many c o u n t r ie s . The Depression resulted In bitter economic warfare in the United States: labor unions against Industries, against each other, and against the government; starving, unemployed citizens against capitalists and politicians.