Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

Corinne Sandwith Two Women Critics and South African English Literay Studies
To teach people about democracy without changing society as a whole is to p
sponding lack of critical attention". In a summary of English Marxism, Francis
'cynics' and 'madmen' (194 1 i:9). Educational reforms, therefore, cannot take th
em (1 974:40) argues that English Marxists
ofgenuine efforts at social and economic redress.
Turning to her literary criticism9, Taylor sets out her allegiances in
following passage:
were united in their insistence that literature could be understood only in
relation to the social conditions in which it was produced. Hence. literary
criticism came to be regarded as the elucidation of the social determinations
The Marxist approach to art, in so far as it shows the relation betwcen art
and society. in so far as it explains why and how a certain tendency in art has
of a text, as the identification of the 'social equivalent' of a given character,
sentiment or situation.
arisen at a particular period in history, in so far as it assists the critic in
analysing the individuality of the artist into its component elements, in so
far as it is able to exainine critically the 'above the battle' attit~ide of both
artists anti critics arid reveal Lhc social soots even of 'purc' art, is invaluable
as a Incans for Inore fully Lindentanding the artist and for a more complete
Taylor's criticism can also be broadly understood in these terms, she does not
heir intellectual origins, claiming instead the intellectual and political tradition
sic Marxism, which she received from Lenin and Trotsky. Unlike much of its
cultural and political traditions, then, Taylor's strand of South African Marxism
intcrnretatiotr ofart (l945b: 16).
very little to ~ritain". In an article which appeared in University of Cape Town
a1 The Crltic in 1935, Taylor (I 935:84-85) registers her indebtedness to the Lenln-
\'he[ e Van Heynmgen looked to Ellglnr~d and I,cav15 for guidance, ljylor did not d sky heritage, and opposes the perversion of their ideals under Stalinist rule.
In any g~eat ~neasr~le 1x1 Fngl~sh Marxists ol the 1930s"'. Ilescnbed ~ JJ Perry Andel
i 1092 55) as d 'spol\taneouq rad~calisat~on v,~thm ttadrtlonally doimant mihe
1 ngla\l-i Fdaruism was prlniarily a rcaclroil to the social, econornlc andpolrtrcal crr
the pet iod, and it took it.; pol!t~cnl and thec~retical cue from Stalmtst Jiussid, rntlie
C'er-it~~~l btirope Whereas thclte had been a trad~tlon oi M,.ilxr.;t thought tn (xeri
iinl.c/ andkrance since the late eightecr.~th ccntury,
Under the Sovret regrme art has become synoi~yn~ous wrth propaganda It
was not so ~mmedrately after the revolutron In the first narve enthus~asm of
the lrberated proletarrat forty thousand poets blossomed III Russla But
when Staltn. In oppositron to Trotsky. turned the Russ~an Communrst Party
Into a nattonalrst organrsat~on su~rounded by a hosttle Europe. 11 was
necessary to create weapons of defence not only In Iron and steel, but In
In/o iomparablc loin1 her~tdg~ \id\ ii~dildi)le lo th(: rii‘~~-