THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM TODAY

In: Commentary, Band 30, Heft 5, S. 369-378

Abstract

Criticism in a mass society mediates between the work of art & the public. Few good critics set out deliberately to enlighten someone else. They write to place their own ideas in order, to possess as a critic, through the integral force of intelligence the work of art created by someone else. At its best true literary criticism may actually suggest new subjects & can enliven the imagination. Its greatest single attribute is its force, its passionate declaration of the true nature of man & what his proper destiny must be. It is the kind of criticism that sums up the spirit of the age in which man lives & asks him to transcend it which enables him to see things in the grand perspective - in the way of Marx on Greek philosophy, Kierkegaard on Mozart, Nietzche on the birth of tragedy, Shaw on Ibsen & Lawrence on Amer literature. The critic who sees himself setting standards for his age may stimulate new works of art by helping to create the climate for discussion & by revealing the hidden issues that give a writer a hint of new subjects. V. D. Sanua.