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F. R. Leavis Quotes

Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis was a British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Wikipedia  

✵ 14. July 1895 – 14. April 1978
F. R. Leavis photo

Works

The Great Tradition
F. R. Leavis: 8 quotes0 likes

Famous F. R. Leavis Quotes

“He is a critic of great gifts, insight and integrity; but those who are not entirely for him are wholly against him; he seeks not pupils but "disciples"; those disciples he has attracted who have not broken away have been, like the master, rancid and fanatic in manner.”

F. R. Leavis

Martin Seymour-Smith Guide to Modern World Literature (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975) vol. 1, pp. 291-2
Criticism

“The only way to escape misrepresentation is never to commit oneself to any critical judgement that makes an impact – that is, never to say anything. I still, however think that the best way to promote profitable discussion is to be as clear as possible with oneself about what one sees and judges, to try and establish the essential discriminations in the given field of interest, and to state them as clearly as one can”

F. R. Leavis book The Great Tradition

for disagreement, if necessary
The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad (London: Chatto & Windus, 1948) p. 1

“A powerful critical talent who destroyed his own sense of proportion, Leavis was our brush with totalitarianism: we caught it as a mild fever instead of the full attack of meningitis. His career was the clearest possible proof that the course the arts take is not under the control of criticism.”

F. R. Leavis

Clive James From the Land of Shadows (London: Picador, 1983) p. 206.
Criticism

“A good deal of Paradise Lost strikes one as being almost as mechanical as bricklaying.”

F. R. Leavis

Revaluation: Tradition and Development in English Poetry (1936; repr. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964)

“The "great tradition" does not brook even the possibility of libidinal gratification between the pages as an end in itself, and FR Leavis's "eat up your broccoli" approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy.”

F. R. Leavis

Angela Carter Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings (London: Chatto & Windus, 1992) p. 9
Criticism

“He doesn't know what he means, and doesn't know he doesn't know.”

F. R. Leavis

Nor Shall My Sword: Discourses on Pluralism, Compassion and Social Hope (London: Chatto & Windus, 1972) p. 43
Of C. P. Snow

“Not only is he not a genius; he is intellectually as undistinguished as it is possible to be.”

F. R. Leavis

Nor Shall My Sword: Discourses on Pluralism, Compassion and Social Hope (London: Chatto & Windus, 1972) p. 42.
Of C. P. Snow

“It is well to start by distinguishing the few really great – the major novelists who count in the same way as the major poets, in the sense that they not only change the possibilities of the art for practitioners and readers, but that they are significant in terms of the human awareness they promote; awareness of the possibilities of life.”

F. R. Leavis book The Great Tradition

The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad (London: Chatto & Windus, 1948) p. 2

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