CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Author(s): Cresap S. Watson

Source: CEA Critic , November, 1957, Vol. 19, No. 8 (November, 1957), pp. 1, 4-5
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44415236

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 THE CEA CRITIC
Vol. No. XIX - No. 8 - Published at Springfield, Mass. Editorial Office,

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Remedial English
As an Old China Hand at remedial read-
No one would argue that contemporary
or any other literary epoch.
ing and study skills I do as much testing
literature deserves a dominant place
Many inpeople,
the of course, object that
of word recognition as possible, right up
English curriculum. But a growing' number
is difficult to teach contemporary lit
through college level. Without as yet any
available statistics, which we are preparing, of people feel that it deserves a bigger
ture properly, since we have no real
I believe the "poor" or "slow" readers usu- place than is usually begrudged to it.
torical perspective. They complain tha
ally either fail to recognize some simple Ideally, every English department ought to
modern literature it is impossible to
words, or else twist them out of counten- tinguish
offer three contemporary literature the main tide from the cro
cours-
ance, or both.
es, one course in each major literary
currents, formor the truly important work fr
In the first place, they often reverse
- modern fiction, poetry, and the drama. And
ephemeral. However, it is often diff
letters within the word, reading UNTIED
for UNITED (Page the United Nations!),
every department, no matter how
cult to small
decide these questions even w
UNCLEAR for NUCLEAR, TOPS for it may be, is obliged, I think, to offer at
a historical perspective.
STOP. These irrelevant interpretations least one course in contemporary There litera-
are a great many things we c
they may correct in mid-air, saying, "That ture, even if the course is only a super-a historical perspective.
see without
word isn't TOPS. It's POTS." Then they ficial survey of the whole modern do not period.
have to wait another hundred ye
may look at the sentence they are reading:
There are several reasons why beforecontem-
we can recognize some of the
STOP AT THE RED LIGHT, and comment,
"POTS AT THE RED LIGHT. That's non- porary literature deserves this attention
tinctive patterns or characteristic featu
sense!" Often enough the student has and respect. First of all, it is a
a per- of sizable and
contemporary literature. Many of th
fectly clear idea of the actual meaning distinctive body of literature. are clear now.
Exciting
despite the curious tricks his neurological things have happened in literature, Modern and to are preoccupied with
writers
confusions are playing him, and ends up by literature, during the twentieth problems or features
century - of life that writers
using a circumlocution: PUT ON YOUR
BRAKES AT THE RED LIGHT.
as people familiar with it scarcely
never need
dwelled to
on so insistently before in
be told. Moreover, the things thatOver
literature. have and over again in modern
In the second place, they insert, eliminate
happened in contemporary literature
or substitute letters with reckless abandon. are
literature you run into the same problems
Their favorite substitutions seem to be just as dramatic and just as -radical
dislocation,
asisolation,
the loneliness, inartic-
r and 1, or n and m. An eight-year-old events
boy that occurred in literature
ulateness,during'
exile, maladjustment, sickness,
read aloud to me, "The horse was eating thethe
romantic movement, the Renaissance, (Please turn to p. 4)
glass growing in the pasture. "Then, look-
ing up, he sagely pointed out, "That's per-
fectly ridiculous for two reasons. In the Doctoral Studies in Engtish
first place, horses don't eat glass; and in The report of the Ryan Committee, First question: How possibly can we in-
the second place, glass does not grow in
Doctoral Studies in English and Prepara- clude all of these requirements in the short
fields. How stupid can that author be?"
I waited to see if this 160 I.Q. child would tion for Teaching, faces the problem of happy life of Francis, prospective Ph. D.?
analyze his own trouble. He did. He burst the Ph. D. in English humbly, squarely, He has a minimum residence of three
out, "I know, it was Grass and I substi- tactfully, and on the whole I am convinced years (and few candidates now take much
tuted 1 for r. There goes my lousy word
recognition again! L for r, at for ate, men
quite accurately. These committeemen more although they may lengthen the time
man. Boy, have I got a problem!" Right. have amassed information from published by service as graduate assistants), one
But you will agree that he has no oral articles, questionnaires, and literally hun- year of which is normally devoted to the
problem. However, the connection between dreds of conversations, I assume, and they writing of a dissertation (Report, p. 16).
what he sees and what he interprets is
subject to many a short circuit. have welded all this into a clearly worded He must take two full-year courses in
This problem can be even more frustrat- account that may be the beginnings of a linguistics (p. 26), and if he has not done
ing to adults, who are less adjustable and cure for the long chronic ills of the ailing the minimum work in history (and most of
less willing to admit weaknesses. A 23- Ph. D. They recommend specifically more them haven't), "The most relevant single
year-old student of mine looked at the word
SPLIT. First he read it SPLITE. Then he breadth in training without losing the real course would seem to be that tn English
said SPIT, then SPILT. Finally, utterly values of concentration, a thorough knowl- (American omitted!) history" (p. 7).
lost, and furious, he said, "I don't know. I edge of one foreign language and litera- Wouldn't two courses be the very mini-
never saw the word before. There is no such
ture, interpretative and critical disserta- mum? He should have some "vital contact
word."
In the third place, they may "read" a
tions (for the talented a novel, etc.!), with at least one of the arts" (p. 6). One
word so nebulously that all they can get pedagogic techniques within the English course is hardly "vital," but let's stop with
is a kind of assonance or private onomato- department (no Education, please!), and a one. He must have "a course devoted to
poeia. Just yesterday an 18-year old boy proper amount of linguistic scholarship. practical criticism" (p. 8). He must be so
was reading half aloud to himself, hunting
Few English teachers will quarrel with these much "at home" with one foreign lan-
for specific facts in planning a term paper.
He mumbled along, "And during the Silver ideals, nor do I wish to quarrel with them, guage and literature that he is able "to
(Please turn to p. 5) but I have two or three questions to ask. (Please turn to p. 6)

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 Page' Pour T H E CEA GRIT I C November, 1957
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE of something called the simultaneous co- What I am trying' to show is that, Basic-
(Continued from p. I) existence of man in space. Other writers ally, contemporary literature is no differ-
focus closely on a single nervous tic which
paralysis, stasis, inertia, impotence, steril- ent from any other body. of literature, any-
would have passed unnoticed in a more
ity, violence, cruelty, pain, guilt, despair, time, anywhere. All stories - whether they
futility, negation, and dehumanization.expansive age. are composed as epic poems, plays, nov-
And it is not difficult to see that in Psychology has given literature a whole els, or short stories- - are based on one

modern fiction, poetry, and drama there new area to explore - the deeper levels thing, conflict. Modern stories still contain
has been a revolution in form and tech- of human consciousness. It has given us conflicts, though the conflicts may be
nique. For one thing', modern writers seem some new concepts of human behavior, or
psychological, obscure, uneventful or in-
conclusive - like the conflicts in modern
preoccupied with form and acutely self- misbehavior. It has helped make literature
conscious about technique. In holding the more subjective and less athletic, by life. • Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Joyce
still deal with three themes you can find
mirror up to chaos and disorder, modern teaching us to respect motivation as much
writers cultivate the imitative fallacy, and as actual conduct or behavior. On the in classical mythology or Arthurian legends
- the themes of initiation, rebellion, and
write plays, poems, and novels that are other hand, the Behaviorist psychologists
quest. They are basic themes in both lit-
have taught writers the virtues of clinical
disjunctive, fragmental, discontinuous. Or-
detachment and the value of documen- erature and life.
ganic form takes the place of stanzas, acts,
scenes, and chapters. Modern literature tary notation in delineating' people byNo literature therefore is contemporary,
grows more and more introspective and their physical responses and overt be- and yet all literature is contemporary.
havior. Twentieth-century literature differs from
subjective as writers explore the deeper
levels of consciousness. Yet at the same Causality, chronology, unity, nature, and that of other periods, not in basic fea-
time modern writers grow more clinical action have faded away in modern litera- tures, but only in superficial respects. Yet
and more objective, as they adopt the de- ture. With them, other things have van- those superficial differences are just as
tachment of Joyce and his invisible artist, ished, plot, story-telling, and the old striking, just as important, and just as sub-
"refined out of existence, indifferent, par- fashioned hero - a robust, self-sufficient, stantial as the features which distinguish
neo-classical literature from romantic liter-
ing' his fingernails." Intricacy, ingenuity, self-confident, person endowed with ener-
complexity, and obscurity have become gy and free will. Instead we have the help- ature, or Renaissance from medieval litera-
ture.
characteristic features of literature today, less, ineffectual ciphers of modern litera-
ture.
as every college sophomore can testify. Contemporary literature is important,
Modern social or scientific concepts As I have said, modern literature is full then, in its own right as a distinctive and
have exerted a powerful, often a direct in- of these striking departures and. distinctive
sizable body of literature, a body of litera-
fluence on contemporary literature. Thanks features. Yet in one sense these features
ture which is universal and yet unique.
to people like William James, Bergson, are superficial ones, for there is actuallyHowever, it is also important historical-
and Einstein, our traditional concept of no such thing as contemporary literature.
ly. For instance, it would be impossible to
time has changed in both literature and All literature is contemporary literature. teach the history or development of the
life. In modern fiction and drama, for ex- As we are fond of telling our students, novel as a literary form, without consider-
ample, authors violate all our accepted no- literature (that is, really good literature,ing t^e twentieth-century novel. For the
tions of chronology, unity, and order. In- lasting literature) is concerned with uni- novel is not very old, and yet has today
stead of clock time or chronological order, versais, with the elemental things in life, outdistanced poetry and drama to become
we are confronted with shifting, coalescing the verities of human nature, not with triv-
the major literary form of our time. To
periods of time. To cope with time in ial questions or transitory problems. We
teach the history of the novel without con-
modern literature writers have devised or try to convince students that Hamlet sidering
or the modern novel would be as
appropriated new techniques - montage, Ulysses is Everyman, not just a remote
misleading as to teach the history of Eng-
"dissolves," flashbacks, stream of con- literary figure. lish literature without considering anything
sciouness. This principle of universality is an oldwritten after Pope's or Dryden's day. Our
Space - like time- is no longer a rigid, one. It is the same idea Faulkner saw in colleagues, remember, do not stop teach-
fixed dimension in fiction or drama. Physi- "Ode on a Grecian Uurn" and voiced in ing biology with Darwin or history with
cal setting and nature are often nebulous his story "The Bear." He voiced it again Ģueen Victoria.
or negligible in modern stories and plays. in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Contemporary literature is valuable in
The scene of the conflict or action is not when he warned writers to leave no room other ways. It often proves more appeal-
a room, a house, a forest. Instead, the con- in their workshops for "anything but the ing to students than traditional, historical
flict is internal and the action is largelyold verities and truths of the heart, the old works. The popularity of modern literature
subjective. An author will fix his character universal truths lacking' which any story is courses is proof - and often cause for
momentarily in time and space - perhaps ephemeral and doomed - love and honor envy. For studente who are hostile to liter-
9:30 P.M. on the corner of 3d and Main and pity and pride and compassion and ature or untrained in reading, modern lit-
- and then for several hundred pages sacrifice." It is the same principle Stein- erature can serve as a painless, palatable
roam freely back and forth, here andbeck expressed in different words in East introduction. All literature is concerned
there, through various chambers of his of Eden: "If a story is not about the hear- with universais and each hero is Everyman,
character's mind. er he will not listen. And I here make a but it is often easier for the inexperienced
Modern novels are panoramic or mi- rule - a great and lasting story is about reader to spot the universais in the fam-
croscopic in scale, or both at the sameeveryone, or it will not last. The strange iliar and to recognize Everyman in Dos
time. Writers like Virginia Woolf, Thomas and foreign is not interesting - only thePassos before, he. recognizes him in Shake
Wolfe, and Joyce try to convey a sense deeply personal and familiar." s pea re.

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 November, 1957 THE CEA CRITIC Page Five
Furthermore, if we were honest we eigners wrestling with English, they may were identical with those of my English
would have to admit that a lot of the have no feeling for the shape of a sentence, students. In addition, as he started writing
especially for those vital indicators of re- Arabic from right to left, he began the
traditional, classical literature preserved
lationship, prepositions. Their sense of the same technique in English, carefully writ-
in textbooks and college courses is, frankly,
function of a noun and an adjective is often ing backward, starting each word with its
pretty dull. Perhaps some of our sacred hazy, verging on non-existent. And they last letter, from right to left. He also did
books are archaic instead of timeless and also show a curious inability to place a this with numbers. This tendency to move
word in its usual frame of reference. Ex- eye and hand in the direction opposite to
universal. Human nature may not change
amples culled from some of my students' that of written English is found in signifi-
substantially, but our modern tastes, our
papers follow. cant numbers among English "poor" or
modern language, our modern values, our"The man had an anathema character." "disabled" readers, especially the left-hand-
modern obsessions are notably different"My old neighbor had a cardiac. The doc- ed or ambidextrous ones.
from those of Wordworth's time or Shake- tor treated her for a bad heart." Back to Yussem. It was my job to teach
"The prognosis jet will come some time in
speare's or Homer's - just as the language, him to read and write, to spell and con-
tastes, values, and obsessions of Words- the future." verse. I may have taught him something,
"The tornado destructed everything." but he taught me a lot more. In the be-
worth's time differed from those of Pope's
"In New York the Italians are a separate ginning was the Word. Yussem slaved over
or Chaucer's, as we ourselves often stress ethnic." his vocabulary. Finally he was ready and
in survey courses. "The water in the pot was ebullient when came the big day of the test. I would say
But perhaps most important, if we want the girl remembered she had left the the word and show it to him and he would
literature to live or the spirit of humanism gas on." then define or use it, wreathed in smiles,
to flourish; if we simply want more Eng- "The little boy meted his toy to the cribbled I might add.
(see below) child across the street." The word Yussem's definition
lish majors and graduate students; or just
"Towns are endemic in the desert lands of Doll "A knife it is doll."
more money, promotions, and prestige we Nevada." Feet "He blayed feetball."
must help close the breach between the
"The terminus of the storm was directly Tack "In the army I had a duck-
writer and the reader, between the in- followed with sunshine." tack around my neck."
"We are always wanting to strive of more
tellectual and society. Teaching contem- Mast "I mast learn my lessons
and more speed." for Missa Down."
porary literature is one way to help.
"Television causes more entertainment to Necks "We drink eggnecks in
Cresap S. Watson
the family." Newyear days in U.S."
Louisiana State Univ. "Joan of Arc was anathematized of the Meant "In army I meant hole in
Catholic Church." my socks when comes hole."
"She lives in that dark old sinister on the Sends "I lie by the sends by the
REMEDIAL ENGLISH
hill." sea in Florida where is warm."
(Continued from p. I) "Habeas Capers is a law writ." Wind "I was winding my own
War the ship was used as a riveteer (pri-
"I can't think of any anarchy state. They business when cop he say pullin up
vateer) ." How much of the meaning he all have some kind of government." blease, you bum driver."
grasped is a question. Perhaps best an- "The lawyer habeas corpused him and gave Pond "He bought a pond of but-
swered by the fact that presently he pushed him to bail." ter is expansive yes."
the book at me, saying, "Here, you go on."Samson was famous for his strongity." Buff "A buff smoke blow out my
I'm sick of reading." Being very bright, he
"The lawn was a disastrously mess." car when is froze the waters."
may have been sick of reading nonsense. "Your hands are saved from roughness and
A good example of vague onomatopoeia chapness by cold cream." (Please turn to next page)
was given by a college freshman with whom
"I am cyclical. I know what people are
I was working on vocabulary. She came up thinking."
with these haunting dream-sounds: "The child was robusting with health."
"The avoirdupoid apes resemble man." Again, these disabled readers, like so THE WRITER'S
"The boy was retrospected for breaking the
many foreigners, experience considerable
window." difficulty in hearing or recording the dif- RESOURCE
"Mary was so sagacity to the teacher thatferences between the voiced and the un-
she was sent out of the room." voiced consonants. BOOK
"His circumconditions were lamentable. He b becomes p (puplic); d becomes t (epi-
lived in the poorest section of town." temic); g becomes k (distinkuish) v be- revised,
In the fourth place, words pull them- comes f (many wifes)
selves apart, or disguise themselves under By the same token the short vowels be-
a cloak of incorrect accenting, like my
edited by John Gerber
come indistinguishable. To these students
French student who kept referring to anyou say met and he writes mit; bum and An intelligent introduction to good
unPLEESEant diFFICulty not encountered he writes bam; tab and he writes tub; rop writing and critical thinking.
by EuROFean pupils. A bright girl of and 16 he writes rep.
Meets the freshman's need for a
was reading this sentence: "For this pur- Into my college study skills classes flock
pose the wounded lieutenant had brought many foreign students. Their visual acuity wide selection of material on pres-
along a carrier pigeon." She started, "For seems to show the same kind of inaccuracy
ent-day topics.
this proPOSE," and stopped. Again she as that of English speaking students with
tried, "For this PROpose," and corrected it "reading problems." Or is it broplems? 512 pages $3.75 list
to, "For this purPOSE". Adroitly detouring Of all the foreigners' difficulties I have
around this road block she finished, "With met I was most fascinated by Yussem's.
this end in view, the wounded lieutenant, He was an Arab who had come to the Scott,
etc." Not every inaccurate perceiver is so United States to sell rugs, landed in the I-i Chicago,
quick to grasp the real meaning under the infantry, and finally in my office, where I
I-i Foresman
^ Dallas,
bewildering palimpsest of his own making. was a kind of special teacher for the Vet- and Compan
Another stigma of the "slow" readers erans' Administration. Yussem interested
turns up in their writing. Like most for- me partly because so many of his errors

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