THE STATE OF AMERICAN WRIT ING, 1948:
SEVEN QUESTIONS
We are publishing below some of the replies to a question–
naire submitted to a group of American writers. The questions follow:
1.
What, in your opinion, are the new literary tendencies or figures,
if any, that have emerged in the forties? How does the literary
atmosphere of this decade compare with that of the thirties? In
what way, too, does the present fJeriod differ from the first postwar
period? Can the differences between the two postwar periods be
defined in relation to the European situation?
2.
Do you think that American middlebrow culture has grown more
powerful in this decade? In what relation does this middlebrow
tendency stand to serious writing-does it threaten or bolster it?
3.
What
is
the meaning of the literary revivals (lames, Forster, Fitz–
gerald, etc.) that have taken place of late? Is this a publishing
phenomenon or is it an organic literary interest in the sense that
the rediscovered writers of the past are in some way truly expres–
sive of current literary needs?
4.
It is the general opinion that, unlike the twenties, this is not a
period of experiment in language and form. If that is true, what
significance can be attached to this fact? Does present writing base
itself on the e.arlier experimentation, in the sense that it has crea–
tively assimilated it, or can it be said that the earlier experimen–
tation came to a dead end?
5.
In the twenties most w1iters were free-lancers, whereas now many
make their living by teaching in universities. Has this change af–
fected the tone and mood of
lite~·ature
in our time? Can it with
justice be said that American writing has grown more academic
since the twenties?
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