PARTISAN REVIEW THEN AND NOW.
Just to reread the
editorial in the first issue of the new
Partisan Review
is to be reminded
how much the world has changed and how much we have changed.
Yet there is a clear line of continuity in the magazine. Although some
of our thinking has responded to changes in the intellectual and po–
litical atmosphere, our intellectual principles and our literary values
have been fairly constant.
In 1937, when we had just broken with the communists, and
we reappeared as an independent, Left literary and cultural review,
we still avowed an allegiance to a radical movement and to the basic
direction of Marxist thinking. At the same time, we were committed
to the free play of ideas, and we were open to all literary tendencies.
We were aware that the Soviet Union had become a totalitarian state
and that the Communist Party was a corrupt instrument of Soviet
policy. But it still was not clear, at least not to us, how much of what
has gone by the name of radical or Marxist thinking had been per–
verted by Soviet- and Communist- nationalist purposes and mach–
inations- how much of it was becoming "Left" cant.
As the early editorial indicated, we were trying to merge the
modernism, the estheticism, and the avant garde impulses of the ear–
liest years of the century with the new historical sense that the best
part of the radical movement had introduced. But while we recog–
nized that the esthetic of modernism was undergoing many changes,
we could not foresee later cooptation by the media and by more pop–
ular trends in the culture.
We think, however, as we look back, that we were able to re–
spond to the shift of the political and literary mind and to the
changes in the world situation, while at the same time we managed
to maintain our political and literary sanity. We think we succeeded,
at least most of the time, in keeping a balance between traditional
standards and values and an adventurous spirit in evaluating new
ideas and forms.
Where are we now, as we are nearing the end of a violent and
traumatic century? This is a difficult question to answer. Perhaps the
most characteristic aspect of this period is that everything seems to
be in doubt, everything in flux, everything problematic. Our liter–
ature, our culture, our politics are full of contradictions and reversals
and polarizations. Under the banner of pluralism, everything is
moving in all directions, and confusion has become a normal condi–
tion. This is not to say there is any lack of talent or critical thinking.
