VARIETY
cgnize the uniqueness as well as
the
~imilarity
of ages relieves the
scholar of the irksome task of
di–
rectly studying his own age. He
finds it much easier to study some
other age, to sum it up in a neat
formulation, and then, perhaps in
passing, to "compare" it with our
own age.
But there is another reason why
the scholars fail to look at the pres–
ent. The student of Dante, says
Lovejoy, should create a "frame
of reference" consisting of the
dominant ideas of Dante's time so
that the reader will be able to
read the
Divine Comedy
with at
least some of the knowledge which
a contemporary of Dante could
bring to the poem. No one can
deny that with due qualification
this kind of scholarship is helpful.
But the frame-of-reference ap–
proach shows us why the schol–
ars do not generally try to deal
with our own culture and why
they fail badly when they do. Kaf–
ka has an already-created frame
of reference; namely, modern cul–
ture, Life, or Reality. But
this
frame of reference is so real that
the scholar does not recognize it as
a possible context in which to
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