Abstract
As a reaction to the former exaggerated individualistic trend, a compensatory regression to the collective man-has set in. Collective man has become paramount, and his authority simply consists of the weight of the masses. No wonder that we have a feeling of impending disaster... Collective man is threatening to suffocate the individual...1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
C. G. Jung, Essays on Contemporary Events. Translated by Elizabeth Walsh, Barbara Hannah, and Mary Briner. London: K. Paul, 1947, p. 76.
John Macmurray, Persons in Relation. London: Faber and Faber, Limited, 1961, p. 211.
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958, p. 22.
Martin Buber, I and Thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1950, p. 149.
Eric Kahler, The Tower and the Abyss. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1957, p. 17.
Paul Ginestier, The Poet and the Machine. Translated by Martin B. Friedman. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1961, p. 38. See the chapter on “Love and Hatred of the Machine,” in
Jacques Barzun, Science: The Glorious Entertainment. New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1964, pp. 31–58.
For the social background of such novels as Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Vanity Fair
see Dorothy Van Ghent, The English Novel. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1953.
Robert Emmet Jones, The Alienated Hero in Modern French Drama. University of Georgia Monographs, No. 8. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. 1962, p. 6.
Nathalie Sarraute, The Age of Suspicion. Translated by Maria Jolas, New York: George Braziller, 1963, pp. 55–56.
See Henry Treece, How I See Apocalypse. London: Lindsay Drummond Ltd., 1946.
Herbert Read, Anarchy and Order. London: Faber and Faber, 1954, p. 58.
See Charles I. Glicksberg, “Herbert Read: Reason and Romanticism,” University of Toronto Quarterly, XVI (October, 1946), pp. 60–67.
Charles E. Eisinger, Fiction of the Forties. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1963, p. 232.
George Orwell, “Inside the Whale,” New Directions in Prose & Poetry. Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1946, p. 244.
Michael Fraenkel, The Genesis of the Tropic of Cancer. Berkeley, California: Ben Porter, 1946, p. 5.
Stefan Schimanski and Henry Treece (eds.). A New Romantic Anthology. London: Grey Walls Press Ltd., 1949, pp. 36–37.
Though Miller, who is a far-ranging and omnivorous reader, never mentions Max Stirner, the latter’s exaltation of the ego as the sole measure of value, defines Miller’s own position as a writer. “My concern,” writes Stirner, “is neither the divine nor the human, not the true, good, just, free, etc., but solely what is mine, and it is not a general one, but is-unique, as I am unique.” Max Stirner, The Ego and His Own. Translated by Steven T. Byington. Edited by James J. Martin. New York: Libertarian Book Club, 1963, p. 5.
Like Miller’s characters, they are “absolutely cut off from all normal pursuits of those affiliated with the social order.” David L. Stevenson, “James Jones and Jack Kerouac: Novelists of Disjunction,” in Nona Balakian and Charles Simmons (eds.), The Creative Present. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1963, p. 207.
See Cyril Connolly’s essay, “The Beats,” in his book, Previous Convictions. New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1963, p. 352.
D. S. Savage, like Alex Comfort, states the issue squarely: “The modern artist cannot take his values from contemporary society, because that society lacks all coherent standards and values.” D. S. Savage, The Personal Principle. London: Routledge, 1964, p. 5.
Thomas Hinde, Happy as Larry. London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1957, p. 110.
Kenneth Keniston, The Uncommitted. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Work, Inc., 1965, p. 412.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1972 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Glicksberg, C.I. (1972). The Individual Versus Society. In: Literature and Society. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4851-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4851-3_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-4619-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-4851-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive