A New Reading of an Old Text in Eastern Europe: John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle
Abstract Although rich in artistry and depth, Steinbeck’s novel In Dubious Battle (1936) has been judged less as a novel and more as a sociological event or a propagandistic political tract. At least contemporary critics are inclined to treat the book as a legitimate work of art, to be approached from a variety of the usual aesthetic and theoretical angles. However, no matter which lens In Dubious Battle is viewed through, it is certainly a mistake to attribute the novel’s enduring appeal and value to its depiction of a migrant apple pickers’ strike typical of the 1930s. In its concern with the human dilemmas regarding the nature of power, personal freedom, and degree of responsibility and commitment, it is as powerful today as it was when it was written.
Major Steinbeck Publications, 2012-2013
Abbott, Scott, and Lyn Bennett. “Literary Barbed Wire: Reifying the Metaphor.” Steinbeck Review 10.1 (2013): 12–30. Print. Armengol, Josep M. “Gendering the Great Depression: Rethinking the Male Body in 1930s American Culture and Literature.” Journal of Gender Studies 23.1 (2014): 59–68. Print. Barden, Thomas E. “‘He was translated’: Euhemerism in Steinbeck’s Work and Worldview.” Steinbeck Review 11.1 (2014): 14–38. Print. Brinkman, Mark. “Looking Back to the Future in John Steinbeck’s America and Americans.” Steinbeck Review 11.2 (2014): 155–170. Print. Brown, Mary M. “‘To read a fine thing’: Three Poems Honoring Steinbeck.” Steinbeck Review 11.2 (2014): 185–188. Print. Čerče, Danica. “A New Reading of an Old Text in Eastern Europe: John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle.” Journal of Language Literature and Culture 60.3 (2013): 178–192. Print. DeLucia, Laura. “Positioning Steinbeck’s Automobiles: Class and Cars in The Grapes of Wrath.” Steinbeck Review 11.2 (2014): 138–154. Print. DeMott, Robert. “Of Fish and Men.” Steinbeck Review 11.2 (2014): 113–137. Print. Gaard, Greta. “Literary Milk: Breastfeeding across Race, Class, and Species in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.” Journal of Ecocriticism 5.1 (2013): 1–18. Print. Gladstein, Mimi Reisel. “Edenic Ironies: Steinbeck’s Conflicted Vision.” Steinbeck Review 11.1 (2014): 1–13. Print. Godfrey, Mollie. “‘They ain’t human’: John Steinbeck, Proletarian Fiction, and the Racial Politics of ‘The People.’” Modern Fiction Studies 59.1 (2013): 107–134. Print. m a j o r s t e i n b e c k p u b l i c a t i o n s , 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3
Imagination and Meaning: Aesthetic Attitudes and Ideas in Mircea Eliade's Thought
founder of modern aesthetics, although the author of La scienza nuova never did specifically try to define art and was preoccupied mainly, if not exclusively, with the problem of comprehending a forma mentis that he called "poetic" and that we now would call "mythic." Even if Croce's viewpoint seems somewhat exaggerated, there is no doubt that the founder of the modern study of myth has, directly or indirectly, played a major role in the history of aesthetic consciousness. Finally, Vico's use of "poetic" instead of "mythic" is more than a simple case of synonymity. It involves a complex conception of the poetic. Opposed to the already very strong Cartesian tradition of rationalism of the early eighteenth century, Vico displayed a fruitful cult of fantasy, originality (in the etymological sense), and ingenuousness and revealed the inexhaustible metaphoric powers of mythical thought. Even more, metaphor and myth were for Vico a means to knowledge: the sphere of the poetic was not only extended, but also given a philosophical dignity in perfect contrast to its status in rationalist aesthetics as a mere "plaything of the mind" or a form of "ornate" discourse. From this point of view, Vico is perhaps the first great modern thinker to have suggested an existential approach to the problems of both mythology and poetry. His anthropology definitely contains an aesthetic, and this aesthetic is based on a system of values which defines a mode of being. I think it is not at all fortuitous that Vico was led to his revolutionary discoveries by his contact with the manifestations of "primitive" religious creativeness. It seems to me that Vico's emphasis on richness, implied in his conception of mythical thought, suggests an important aspect of the aesthetic attitude, even when we do not accept the Italian philosopher's emotionalexpressive view of myth and his particular historicism centered around the idea of corsi and ricorsi.