ABSTRACT
The All-Union Writers’ Congress has witnessed many revaluations, particularly of foreign writers, and the name of James Joyce provoked the most heated debate of any. Karl Radek, with his usual ruthlessness; expressed the opinion that Joyce’s defects so overbalanced his merits that he could be safely rejected in toto. Others, however, held more moderate-and, we believe, fairer-views, notably V.Gertsfelde, a Soviet critic whose speech we reproduce below:
‘Joyce’s method is definitely experimental, and we cannot deny the writer the right to experiment, even if we question the value of his experimentation. Joyce’s method, which is very unusual both from the æsthetic and the intellectual point of view, has led to the formation of a school in which we must include the names of such writers as John Dos Passos. Radek [No. 278] is entirely justified in saying that this school is a dangerous one, not because its teachings are petty, stupid, or inadequate-as one might suppose from Comrade Radek’s report-but, on the contrary, because this school has so much to offer.
