Criticizing the critics -- Warren French
Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Mon, 03 Nov 1997 11:31:58 -0600
Will wrote:
> I disagree (respectfully and joyfully since jon's post is filled with fine
> thinking!) with jon's sense of Warren French but admit WF's a friend of
> mine and encouraged me with my dissertation in ways that I will thank him
> for forever...
This is interesting -- what was your topic, Will? Was it written before
or after French's second book (1988)? Just curious. Reply privately if
you'd prefer.
Would you agree with me, Will, that French's first book casts a rather
skeptical eye on Salinger's work? I wouldn't dismiss him for that,
obviously, but I do think that French is very resistant to meeting CitR
on its own terms. It's been a few years since I've read the whole
thing, but I seem to remember him faulting Salinger for making emotional
sympathy the basis of the book's appeal -- as if S is too blatantly
pandering to an adolescent sensibility. I think there's a lot more
going on in Salinger than that, and I would also suggest that while
emotional appeals are much harder to analyze rationally (which is the
commentator's job), that doesn't mean they should be discounted; to a
certain extent, French does so -- at least in 1963.
Before I criticize French beyond that, however, I should read all of the
"revisitation" published in 1988. I paged through it, reading whatever
caught my eye, and none of it suggested a radically different approach.
I have to respect a scholar who's willing to reassess his own criticism,
however, and I guess I owe French a better shot. Will, how would you
characterize the difference between the first and second books? One
obvious disadvantage for French in 1963 would be that Salinger was still
involved in publishing books at that time; by 1988, his critical object
was a very familiar set of texts.
>From Helena... another poster very stingy with the "Shift" key:
:-)
> > If you want to track down "the best," or most famous, or
> > most controversial criticism on Salinger, check out a book like Ian
> > Hamilton's IN SEARCH OF..., which has an overview of the major studies.
>
> oh. i guess i already *have* read some jd crit. i didn't realise it at
> the time though. i thought i was reading a nosey intrusion into his
> private life.
Just to clarify what I meant -- yes, Hamilton does some lit-crit of
Salinger; I wasn't suggesting, however, that his book is "the best" or
most famous or most controversial critique. It's just that he gives an
overview of what the major critics have said about JD -- Warren French,
for instance. That's a tip for would-be literary researchers: if you
need to find out what critical writings have most influenced our
understanding of an author, you can often get a pretty quick idea from
checking out literary biographies, which have been written for most
major authors.
Jon