SLSL Intro "Chicago School"

[jbor]

on 7/11/02 2:50 PM, s~Z at keithsz at concentric.net wrote:

> Are there authors who speak of lit-crit as an influence in their writing?

Pynchon certainly does: "The conflict in those days (i.e. in the mid-late
'50s, when Pynchon was in and out of college and beginning to get a feel for
current literary trends and critical theory, as well as student politics)
was, like most everything else, muted. In its literary version it shaped up
as traditional vs. Beat fiction. Although, far away, one of theatres of
action we kept hearing about was at the University of Chicago. There was a
"Chicago School" of literary criticism, for example, which had a lot of
people's attention and respect. ... there had been a shakeup at the _Chicago
Review_ which resulted in the Beat-oriented _Big Table_ magazine. "What
happened at Chicago" became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive
threat. There were many other such disputes. Against the undeniable power of
tradition ... Norman Mailer's 'The White Negro', ... recorded jazz, ... _On
the Road_ ... _The Wandering Scholars_ ... " (p7)

> I
> thought lit-crit was something that was done by readers.

Most writers are astute readers. Pynchon is no exception.

best