WILLIAM PHILLIPS
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character. The reason , I suspec t, is th at unlike th e homogeneous so cieties
of Russia and th e o th er Eu ropea n countri es, Ame ri ca is a young, sprawl–
ing nation, priding itself o n its d ive rsity and lac k of a di stin ct intellectu al
traditi on. It docs no t have a cl ea r image o f itself This is pro bably on e
reason why Ameri ca n culture has bee n so hospitable to the idea of multi–
culturalism .
Now, give n th e contrast betwee n Euro pe and Ame ri ca, it is strange
that
I,
Ameri can-bo rn , sho uld be consc io us o f nati o nal character, whil e
Heinz Hartmann , a Euro pea n by birth and temperament and a traditi on–
alist, should have so firml y d e ni ed it. T o be sure , Sinclair Lewis and
Theodore Dreise r mi ght be sa id to be signifi cant excepti o ns, since bo th
writers in th eir wo rk presented symbo li c images of Ame ri ca . T hese im–
ages were mostl y nega ti ve, but so we re th ose of th e Russian w rite rs.
Lewis, of course, charac te ri zed direc tly the hea rtl and o f Ameri ca . Dreiser
was sli ghtly mo re o bliqu e . Actu all y, the culti va ti o n o f experi ence w as the
dominant mode of much Ame ri ca n fi cti o n . It is most evident , o f course,
in such writers as Mel vil le, Coope r, J ack Lo ndo n , and Mark T wain . In
Henry James, th e nature o f experi ence is reversed, becom ing, fo r som e
reasons noted by hi s criti cs and bi ograph e rs, a kind of inn er experi ence .
And in mu ch co ntempo rary fi cti o n thi s app roac h has taken th e form o f
psychology, o f w hat mi ght be ca ll ed th e cult of pe rsonal experi ence.
W.P.
