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PAUL DE MAN
has brought them closer to the true center of their subject, they are
bound to encounter similar questions (though, at first, the similarity
may remain hidden by radical differences in terminology and tradition) .
A more active exchange of ideas- for which perhaps no real need was
felt until now-will then inevitably take place. These two books are
symptoms of such a tendency, and one can only hope for European
equivalents to follow soon.
The methodological novelty of Hillis Miller's and Joseph Frank's
books is perhaps best illustrated by trying to define what, for all their
differences, they have in common. The differences are clear enough.
Mr. Miller's book deals with a group of writers belonging to a well–
defined period of English literature and is based on an exhaustive know–
ledge of their entire literary production, not merely the main texts but
also such collateral material as journals, letters, etc. It succeeds in its
avowed purpose of being a major contribution, offering not only inte–
grated images of complex figures, but placing them within the relevant
period. And Mr. Miller doesn't stop there. He attempts a general
diagnosis of the spiritual crisis that characterizes the English nineteenth
century and relates it to the fundamental movements of Western thought.
Joseph Frank's collection of articles offers instead an almost random
collection of shorter pieces on twentieth-century authors from Proust
and Malraux to Blackmur and John Peale Bishop, rather loosely con–
nected by some of the theoretical points made in the first essay. The
methods of analysis are also very different. Miller's approach derives
directly from that of
his
erstwhile senior colleague at Johns Hopkins,
Georges Poulet; his book indicates how much of an impact this critic had
during the very few years he spent in this country. To point to
this
influence in no way detracts from Miller's originality, for
if
Poulet's
approach assumes considerable erudition and a "total" knowledge of a
TIBOR de NAGY GALLERY
Richard tum Suden
October 13-31
Robert Richenburg
November 3-2.1
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