Leavis And Reevaluation Of English Fiction Tradition

F. R. Leavis (1895-1978) occupies a predominant position in the 20th century English literary criticism. He had long taught at the University of Cambridge Downing College and is considered as a brilliant and maverick critic. In his long critical career, he has compiled countless critical works and founded with great efforts Scrutiny, the literary critical quarterly magazine, which cultivates a stable critical team and faithful readers, extends the influence of serious literature greatly in the modern society. In other words, Leavis'position in the 20th century English literary criticism can be parallel to that of Samuel Johnson in the 18th century English literature and that of Matthew Arnold in the 19th century English literature.Leavis'early works, New Bearings in English Poetry (1932) and Reevaluation: Tradition and Development in English Poetry (1936), embody Leavis'evaluation of English poetry and its tradition, but his research focus in his later critical works——The Great Tradition (1948), D. H. Lawrence: Novelist, (1955), Dickens the Novelist, (with Q.D. Leavis, 1970) has turned to the studies on the history of English fiction. If we say Leavis has some previous practices to follow in the field of poetry criticism, he is actually a lonely pioneer in the kingdom of English fiction criticism. It is through those drastic revision that not only does Leavis reevaluate the great tradition of the English fiction but also arouse a sense of unambiguous and differentiable awareness. After a survey of Leavis'entire critical career, undoubtedly, we can find that fiction criticism which shows Leavis'thought abilities and challenging spirit as an excellent critic is more significant.In addition to preface and conclusion, this paper consists of three chapters and an appendix. The basic contents are as follows: The first chapter is entitled Leavis on English novelists, the aim of it intends to comment on Leavis'main achievements in the field of fiction criticism. It is through the comments on the six novelists: Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence that Leavis asserted that those writers inherit Shakespeare's humanistic care and form the main line of evolution of English fiction tradition which calls for the writers to care about the current living condition of the human beings and replay the various possibilities of life in an art world vividly and convincingly through the superb language arts. Therefore, the novels by those great writers are also an expression of life affirmation; they motivate their readers to reflect on the society.The purpose of the second chapter is to examine the basic concepts in Leavis'fiction criticism and analyze their rich implications. These basic concepts are also judgment standards of Leavis'fiction criticism, including"moral concern""life affirmation""the great tradition""impersonality"and"maturity". As the paper points out that the basic concepts above dominate leavis'whole critical practice although they aren't given a clear and systematic definitions, which indicates that combing and clarifying these basic concepts commonly used in Leavis fiction criticism is undoubtedly of great significance for full understanding of Leavis'fiction criticism.The third chapter entitled the weakness and insight of Leavis'fiction criticism is an overall assessment of Leavis'fiction criticism. On the one hand, this paper attempts to analyze the weakness existing in Leavis'fiction criticism; on the other hand, tries to explore the currently referential significance of Leavis'literary criticism. We tend to neglect the "moral concern" and "human consciousness" exhibiting in the great novels while talking about all kinds of "discourses", "functions", "perspectives" and other literary terms or immersing in the analysis of numerous narrative texts. Leavis'critical works full of humanistic care will draw our attention to the issues of relationships of"novel and life"and"novel and morality".The focus of the appendix part is put on Mrs. Leavis'remarks on Jane Austen's writings, its main reference materials are based on A Critical Theory of Jane Austen's writing and her meticulous reading of Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Parks. The reasons behind this are, on the one hand, to highlight Mrs. Leavis'prominent accomplishments as an excellent female critic; On the other hand, these comments are no doubt an important supplement to a full understanding of Leavis' literary criticism cause.This paper seeks to show that in the times of the increasing marginalization of literary studies what we need urgently is the critics acting like Leavis who helps us arouse a sense of unambiguous and differentiable awareness and reacquaint the irreplaceable role of the great literary tradition in the present cultural construction.