ROGER SHATIUCK
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German writers? Gide had been immensely nervous throughout the
discussion, scribbling draft after draft of a closing statement. What
he finally said expressed concern for the security of the Soviet Union
and confidence in its actions .
* * *
It is no easy matter to catch the spirit and the specifics of a Con–
gress that lasted five days and must have generated upwards of a
third of a million words, now dispersed. In order to sample those
speeches, I shall reduce them to six and quote a key passage from
each with a minimum of comment. Each of these six men had wide
experience in polemical writing and intellectual maneuvering. In ef–
fect, they form three loose pairs of writers; each pair displays an ob–
vious link and an equally significant contrast.
It
is the contrasts that
I hope will make themselves clear. The first pair is the Soviet
delegate, Panerov, and Aragon, both important and active party
members committed to the doctrine of socialist realism officially
adopted a year earlier. Panerov spoke at the opening session and
concluded his talk thus.
Clearly, each one of our artists follows his own path , retains his
own style and individuality. But all of us move toward the posi–
tion of socialist realism, toward creating a literature such as has
never existed in the history of humanity . ..
What then is socialist realism?
Socialist realism , according to the statutes of our writers
(union) is the essential method of Soviet literary art and literary
criticism. It requires of the artist that he provide an image that
conforms to truth, a concrete historic image of reality in its rev–
olutionary development. This trllth and this precision in repre–
senting reality must ally themselves with the problem of the ideo–
logical reshaping and the education of workers in the spirit of
socialism .
Aragon talked on the same subject at the very last session. He was
also answering Breton's speech, which had been read the previous
day. His tone was fiery, almost gaudy.
Socialist realism or revolutionary romanticism? Which shall we
choose? Realism is the only way to approach the world before us .
We must choose the light, and reject the dark. It is a matter of
