theoryofliteratu00inwell

86 Theory of Literature
nate the creative process. As we have seen, attention has been
given to the varying methods of composition, to the habits of
authors in revising and rewriting. There has been study of the
genesis of works: the early stages, the drafts, the rejected read-
ings. Yet the critical relevance of much of this information,
especially the many anecdotes about writers' habits, is surely
overrated. A study of revisions, corrections, and the like has
more which is literarily profitable, since, well used, it may help
us perceive critically relevant fissures, inconsistencies, turnings,
distortions in a work of art. Analyzing how Proust composed
his cyclic novel, Feuillerat illuminates the later volumes, ena-
bling us to distinguish several layers in their text. A study of
variants seems to permit glimpses into an author's workshop. 21
Yet if we examine drafts, rejections, exclusions, and cuts more
soberly, we conclude them not, finally, necessary to an understanding
of the finished work or to a judgment upon it. Their
interest is that of any alternative, i.e., they may set into relief
the qualities of the final text. But the same end may very well
be achieved by devising for ourselves alternatives, whether or
not they have actually passed through the author's mind. Keats'
verses in the "Ode to the Nightingale":
The same [voice] that oft-times hath
Charmed magic casements opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn,
may gain something from our knowing that Keats considered
"ruthless seas" and even "keelless seas." But the status of
"ruthless" or "keelless," by chance preserved, does not essen-
tially differ from "dangerous," "empty," "barren," "shipless,"
"cruel," or any other adjective the critic might invoke. They do
not belong to the work of art; nor do these genetic questions
dispense with the analysis and evaluation of the actual work. 22
There remains the question of "psychology" in the works
themselves. Characters in plays and novels are judged by us
to be "psychologically" true. Situations are praised and plots
accepted because of this same quality. Sometimes, a psycho-
logical theory, held either consciously or dimly by an author,
seems to fit a figure or a situation. Thus Lily Campbell has
argued that Hamlet fits the type of "sanguine man's suffering