WHAT IS A PROLETARIAN NOPELf
15
predictions stating that on some future date, there will
be
a proletarian
Proust greater than Proust. The ·reason I made this slighting reference
is
that I feel while they are concerning themselves with such matters, they
are often neglecting to perform as adequately as it might be performed,
the function of a critic in furthering literary development. And that
function is twofold, interpretation and evaluation. And in order to inter–
pret
and
to evaluate, a critic must first seek to understand. And to under–
stand, he cannot come to his work with his knowledge beforehand, his prin–
ciples and standards settled like iron, and then merely to lump them over
aworlc. Rather, he must come to it with .flexible principles, and standards.
And he must first seek to understand what an author is trying to do, and
how well he does it. Then he can evaluate, and by evaluation I mean
here, criticism of a writer's purposes, and an estimation of the e!'Sential
meanings and implications of any work. But to be frank, I must state in
mnclusion, that th revolutionary critical work which I have read has too
often not successfully performed such a task.
