“Contemporary” Literature

As one who often teaches contemporary literature, your servant does not think that twentieth century men of letters ought to be ignored in college and university departments of English literature. If by “contemporary” we mean important writing since the First World War, we have a rich body of poetry and prose to draw upon: Eliot and Yeats and Frost, for instance, genuinely are more relevant to the mind and art of this age than are most Victorian poets.

But this word “contemporary” and this word “relevant” also can signify ephemera and the subliterary. To satisfy the demands (or, rather, as a sop to the indifferences) of the counter-cultural youth on many a campus, courses in the study of detective romances and soap operas are coming to form the backbone of “contemporary” literature.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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As one who often teaches contemporary literature, your servant does not think that twentieth century men of letters ought to be ignored in college and university departments of English literature. If by “contemporary” we mean important writing since the First World War, we have a rich body of poetry and prose to draw upon: Eliot and Yeats and Frost, for instance, genuinely are more relevant to the mind and art of this age than are most Victorian poets.

But this word “contemporary” and this word “relevant” also can signify ephemera and the subliterary. To satisfy the demands (or, rather, as a sop to the indifferences) of the counter-cultural youth on many a campus, courses in the study of detective romances and soap operas are coming to form the backbone of “contemporary” literature.