The Litterateur as Art-Theorist: Some Approaches to Art

This book is an attempt to collect bit by bit, cohere, interpret and evaluate the large body of the statements about art, scattered in the critical writings, prefaces, interviews, broadcasts, lectures, etc. of the five very major litterateurs of the first half of the twentieth century—viz. Rabindranath Tagore, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster and Joyce Cary. Rabindranath Tagore’s theory of poetry, and the fictional theories of the rest of these authors under discussion are very well-known and have been much debated for decades. But their theories of art have only been touched here and there, and have not been dealt with comprehensively by anyone so far. Hence the need and justification for bringing out this full-length book on this subject of vital significance. I believe this modest endeavour will surely help the academics gain a better understanding not only of the art and ideas of these celebrated men of letters but also of the meaning, nature, function and scope of art in general.