Scott 비평과 Dickens 비평을 통해 본 F. R. Leavis 문학관의 특징

Abstract

본고의 목적은 F. R. Leavis의 문학비평이 지니고 있는 몇 가지 특징을 검토하는 것이다. 예술가의 창조성이나 사유의 힘이 위대한 문학작품을 판별하는 그의 기준인데 이것은 '극시로서의 소설'에 대한 그의 일관된 관심과 연결된다. '극시로서의 소설'에, 대한 관심은 '시적인 구조를 지닌 것으로 그러나 동시에 인간의 사회적 상호관계의 극적 형상화'로서 소설작품을 대하겠다는 의도이다.

이 기준이 Walter Scott에게 적용될때 Leavis는 역사소설가로서 Scott가 독창적으로 지니는 장점을 간과하는 잘못을 범하는데 이러한 잘못은 유기적 농촌공동체에 대한 생각이나 작품의 유기적 전체성에 대한 그의 집착과 연결되어 있는 듯하다.

그러나 이 기준이 T. A. Jackson을 위시한 다른 어떤 비평가보다도 Leavis가 Charles Dickens의 창조성에 주목할 수 있도록 해준 측면도 있다. 후기에 Leavis가 창조성이나 문명에 대한 작가의 책임을 강조하는 낭만적 감수성을 중시하게 된 것도 현대의 '기술공학적. 벤삼적 문명'이 문화의 연속성에 필수불가결한 창조성이나 진정한 사유를 억누른다는 인식이 Leavis에 있어서 점증해 나간다는 사실을 보여주는 것이다.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some characteristics of F.R. Leavis's literary criticism. An artist's creativity or 'potency of thought' is Leavis's criterion in evaluating great literary works. This criterion is related with his consistent concern for 'novel as a dramatic poem', which is his idea to see 'the novel as poetic structure but also as dramatic rendering of man's social interrelations.'

When this criterion is applied to Walter Scott, he overlooks Scott's merits which Scott originally has as a historical novelist. This error, I suppose, is linked with his notion on the organic agrarian community and his adhesion to the organic whole of a work.

However, this criterion makes him pay attention to Dicken's creativity more cogently than any other critic such as T. A. Jackson, and so on. In the later phase, his accentuation on the romantic sensibility which emphasizes creativity or artist's responsibility for civilization reflects his growing awareness that modern 'technologico Benthamite civilization' represses genuine creativity or thought which is indispensable to the continuity of culture.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some characteristics of F.R. Leavis's literary criticism. An artist's creativity or 'potency of thought' is Leavis's criterion in evaluating great literary works. This criterion is related with his consistent concern for 'novel as a dramatic poem', which is his idea to see 'the novel as poetic structure but also as dramatic rendering of man's social interrelations.'

When this criterion is applied to Walter Scott, he overlooks Scott's merits which Scott originally has as a historical novelist. This error, I suppose, is linked with his notion on the organic agrarian community and his adhesion to the organic whole of a work.

However, this criterion makes him pay attention to Dicken's creativity more cogently than any other critic such as T. A. Jackson, and so on. In the later phase, his accentuation on the romantic sensibility which emphasizes creativity or artist's responsibility for civilization reflects his growing awareness that modern 'technologico Benthamite civilization' represses genuine creativity or thought which is indispensable to the continuity of culture.