GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THEORY OF COMMUNISM 677
Application of Marxist Concepts to Literature.
(2) Literature, it is urged, is not a rootless activity
to be studied and understood apart from the political and
economic conditions of the society which is producing it
Literature has a necessary relation to life and good litera-
ture is that which enhances life. Now human life is interwoven
with the texture of society; it involves, nay, more,
it is the expenditure of human energy in social relations.
To enhance life is, therefore, to facilitate what a communist
writer calls "a more productive social organization
of .human energy". The existing social organization of
human energy, that, namely, which obtains under
Literature which
Capitalism, is wasteful and oppressive.
takes the existing organization .for granted, which is,
indeed, merely a parasitic growth upon it, is, therefore,
bad literature. Good literature, on the other hand, reveals
itself as sensitive to the possibilities of increased human
productivity in the age in which the literature appears,
and assists the factors which are operating in favour of
such increase. Good literature is, therefore, always in
essence propagandist, its propaganda being directed to
the furtherance of creative change. So far as the literature
of the past is concerned, the test of valufe is the faithfulness
with which it reflects the circumstances and outlook of
the class or group which the writer represents. But it is
also held that valuable literature is more likely to be
produced in an era of economic expansion and political
agitation than in one of apathy or content. Thus Lenin,
who stressed the need to preserve the valuable elements
in capitalist culture in literature as well as in the other
arts, was a warm admirer of the fictional literature produced
in Russia during the second half of the nineteenth
century, a period of political agitation among the intellectuals
and awakening consciousness among die peasants.
In the present era of declining Capitalism communists
recognize one, and only one, creative movement, namely,
Communism which seeks to overthrow the capitalist system
ofprivate profit making and to replace it by the communal