THE STATE OF CRITICISM
201
poetry and art circles. I'm reading all of you guys, and none of
you is reading us . There are a lot of exciting things in the black and
feminist communities. I think one of the problems with this whole
discussion is its New York orientation and its orientation towards
the eastern university. The discussion is valuable, though it shows
that there is a distinction between those actively engaged in these
issues, the young people, and those in the critical establishment. You
look at
Partisan Review
and you don't see many of the active young
writers and poets being published. You look at
The New York
Review of Books
which completely ignores black and Hispanic
writers, and you wonder why you are having problems.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Larry, you're now officially invited to write about
what you say is being neglected.
BARBARA ROSE: I'm not black, but I'm female, so I feel that I can
address myself
to
at least part of this problem. Certainly, feminists
and black people have a sense of community, which we as apologists
for modernism in one way or another no longer have. Now, the
situation with black visual artists is particularly painful to me.
There is a tremendous amount of energy, but because the visual arts
are so predicated on an economic base, because there are no black
collectors or critics or publications and the economic matrix isn 't
there, there is very little chance that the artists will be able to
continue to evolve in a way which would yield a major figure. In
literature, it is probably quite different because you don't require
this gigantic economic matrix. With regard to feminism, I read the
literature, and I look at the art. I try very hard
to
"get with it. " With
the exception of Juliet Mitchell and a very few others, I do not find
that the writing, the analysis, the criticism are up to my cultural
standards.
LARRY NEAL: Are you aware of
The Black Arts Quarterly?
BARBARA ROSE: No, but I'd be delighted to have more information
about it.
LARRY NEAL: As an example of what I am talking about: a few issues
ago in
Partisan Review ,
a chapter of Morris Dickstein's book on the
sixties was printed, and it completely ignored the energies created in
the sixties by blacks and the minority movements. There is no
reference
to
the music of John Coltrane. There is no reference to the
works of Baraka. You would never know that Ornette Coleman
existed, that Ed Bullins or the black theater movement or the black
poetry movement existed. Black people opened up more poetry to
Americans in the sixties than any group at any other time.
WILLIAM PHI LLIPS: Larry, why don't you write such a piece?
