Completing the circle: Lionel Trilling's influence on the criticism of Robert Brustein.
Item
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Title
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Completing the circle: Lionel Trilling's influence on the criticism of Robert Brustein.
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Identifier
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AAI9908377
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identifier
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9908377
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Creator
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Walters, Scott Edward.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jonathan Kalb
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Journalism | Mass Communications | Literature, American
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Abstract
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The final essay of Robert Brustein's 1994 book, Dumbocracy in America: Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994, is entitled, "Lionel Trilling: Memories of an Intellectual Father." As the title suggests, the essay describes the enormous influence Trilling had on Brustein's decision to become a critic, and on the shape that his criticism has taken over the years since then. Looking back over his thirty-five years as theatre critic for The New Republic, Brustein states that his work was "an attempt to bring (Trilling's) literary and human values to bear on the themes of dramatic works," concluding that "everything I wrote about the theatre was an attempt to pay tribute" to Trilling. Starting from a point of admiration and imitation, Brustein early in his career revolted against some of Trilling's ideas, including his disdain for theatre. However, he slowly made his way back to many of Trilling's basic philosophies. As Brustein notes, "My continuing quarrel with the simplistic politics of the American theatre resembles in kind ... Trilling's dispute with the liberal intellectual politics of his time." This study examines this quarrel as it related to middle-class American society, the effects of modernism on the aesthetic and moral sensibilities of American culture, the student revolts of the 1960s, and the rise of Political Correctness in art and education.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
