theoryofliteratu00inwell

vi Prejace
fied with our account of his specialty. But we have not aimed at
minute completeness: the literary examples cited are always
examples, not "proof" ; the bibliographies are "selective." Nor
have we undertaken to answer all the questions we raise. We
have judged it of central use to ourselves and others to be inter-
national in our scholarship, to ask the right questions, to provide
an organon of method.
The authors of this book, who first met at the University of
Iowa in 1939, immediately felt their large agreement in literary
theory and methodology.
Though of differing backgrounds and training, both had followed
a similar pattern of development, passing through histori-
cal research and work in the "history of ideas," to the position
that literary study should be specifically literary. Both believed
that "scholarship" and "criticism" were compatible 5 both refused
to distinguish between "contemporary" and past literature.
In 1 941, they contributed chapters on "History" and "Criti-
cism" to a collaborative volume, Literary Scholarship, instigated
and edited by Norman Foerster, to whose thought and encouragement
they are conscious of owing much. To him (were it not
to give a misleading impression of his own doctrine) they would
dedicate this book.
The chapters of the present book were undertaken on the basis
of existing interests. Mr. Wellek is primarily responsible for
chapters 1-2, 4-7, 9-14, and 19, Mr. Warren for chapters 3, 8,
and 1 5-1 8 j both shared equally in the concluding chapter. But
the book is a real instance of a collaboration in which the author
is the shared agreement between two writers. In terminology,
tone, and emphasis there remain doubtless, some slight incon-
sistencies between the writers ; but they venture to think that
there may be compensation for these in the sense of two different
minds reaching so substantial an agreement.
It remains to thank Dr. Stevens and the Humanities Division
of the Rockefeller Foundation, without whose aid the book
would not have been possible, and the President, the Deans, and
the department chairman of the University of Iowa, for their
support and generous allotment of time; R. P. Blackmur and
J. C. Ransom for their encouragement; Wallace Fowlie, Roman
Jakobson, John McGalliard, John C. Pope, and Robert Penn