PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTTVES
9
as a
background of values,
and secondly, a selection of specific contributions
by individual bourgeois writers.
Unless we are acutely aware of the body of literature as a whole,
no standards of merit are possible. The measure of a revolutionary writer's
success lies not only in his sensitiveness to proletarian material, but also
in his ability to create new landmarks in the perception of reality; that
is, his success cannot be gauged by immediate agitational significance, but
by his recreation of social forces in their entirety. This becomes specifi:
literary criticism when applied to choice of theme, character and IOCident.
Ahd here it is necessary to stress what many writers tend to forget:
literature is a medium steeped in sensory experience, and does not lend
itself to the conceptual forms that the social-political content of the class
struggle takes most easily. Hence the translation of this content into
images of
physical life
determines-in the esthetic
sense~the
extent of
the writer's achievement.
Th e RoLe of Partisan Review
A magazine is a form of cntIclsm. By its selection of manu9Cripts,
by its emphases in criticism, and by the tone that it adopts, its position is
defined.
Partisan Revie'W,
as the organ of the John Reed Club of New
York, has approached revolutionary writing in the light of the tasks and
problems discussed in this editorial. Our emphasis has been on creative
experimentation and critical precision, leaving more immediate political
questions to other periodicals in the field, especially the
New
Masses.
The present abundance of revolutionary publications makes such a division
of labor possible and desirable.
The editors of
Partisan Review
feel, however, that
yet succeeded in the tasks they have set for themselves.
much of the published materi al has not measured up to
they have not
On the whole
our standards.
We have not published as many experimental stories and poems as we
would desire, and neither has most of the criticism dealt with fundamental
questions. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of the manu–
scripts received show the influence of precisely those tendencies that
Partisan
Review
is setting out to combat. At least seventy-five percent of the
stories and poems submitted, as well as those solicited, are "leftist" in
conception and in execution. On the other hand , even some of the things
we have published, follow traditional patterns too closely, failing to give
an insight into the social' scene. We believe that only in exposing these
weaknesses and in fighting their causes will it be poss:ble for
Pm-timn
Review
to achieve its aims.
