The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-02-06
Americanism of
American Letters
Continued from page To-

ueut. Evidently Or. Eliot's definitions
avail little in literature Where i =
not a question of rights, soctai ~
otherwise, but a question OF no" H4e
IS oukcd al and how character IS poI-
traycd.
Professor Kuno Franckc ts"e ms
German Literature rs DETERMINED
by Social Forces" 190lD, comments on
these two forces, as they manifest
themselves in German literature, d9
follows: 1t seems to me that al ~
Crary Development Is determined "
the incesSant confict Of two elemental
human tendencies: the tendency to-
ward personal freedom and the ten
dcncy toward collective organization.
The former leads to the Observation
and representation of whatever IS
striking, genuine, individual, IN snort
to realism. The latter leads to the Oh
SrrVation and representation OF what
ever is beautiful. Significant, unlNer-
sal, in short to idcalism." Unchecked
~inGividualism may lead to a vulgar
raturaliSm or to a fanatic mystlclSnl.
Unchecked collectivism may lead TO
IAN empty Conventionalism.'
Without attempting to modify, far
less to c~ontrovert, the point OF We"
Which Professor Erancke has SO
searchinGly and brilliantly illustrated
in his great book, let US phrase the
problem, as it relates to American
literature, a little differently. Let US
cali indiyidualiSm the tendency to re-
gard and to portray human character
rs u separate unit. Let us call lnStltu-
tionaliSm Cor COllcctiviSm) the ten
dcncy to regard and to portray hui
man character in unit groups. An
individualist, then, portrayS character
in the m OF a psychologist; an
institutionalist, in the manner of a
SoCiolOgist. The one views life as 50
,ap, ~ "a % 1n1lFS. tho ut har a q q
Serricd range.
ie Foe was par excellence an in
dividualist when he created the char
aCter of Robinson Crusoe. Emerson
became the philosopher of individual
ism when he said: Society every
where i3 IN conspiracy against the
manhood OF every one of its members.
Society is q joint stock company, in
which the members agree, for the
better occurring Of his bread to each
shareholder. to surrender the liberty
and culture of the eater" kipling
has illustrated excessive institution
NliSIn in tho character OF TOmlinSOn,
Thtckordy in the character Of Becky
sharp. TomlinSOn was SO unindiVidual
that neither Saint Peter nor the devil
could find q place for him; Becky
sharp was 50 much the prey of the
social forces about her that Thack-
cray himself said he was unable &c
ibItStE WLtlt Sfle "CUlU GO III any
particular moment,
tut what about tho Indian? Why
the Indian has played an importan,
role in our literature and in our life
partly because he has stimulated
about the limits of i~ndiVidualisn anC
nStitutiona!ism. Never till our fore
fathers landed on plymouth Rock anC
JamestoWn had the Anglo-Saxon PEG.
pic been brought into contact with {
tIDp ot character Sn Unconstitutional
iZed as the American Red Man. Thi!
IS Why our statesmen of Revolution
ary times make such frequent refer
enceS to him. He was a new elemen
in their thinking. They could shul
him or shoot HON, but there he stood
a supreme type OF raw individualisn
= concrete example of how much an
how little there was in the cry "Bac
TO Nature" which meant Back t
native individualism from a too elah
crate inStltutionalisTn." We find JET
Ycrson t'Notcs on Virginia." 1852
saying: Were it made a questio
whether no law, as among the savag
Americans C~ndianS). or too niue
law rs among the civilized European
submits man to the greatest evil. on
who has seen both conditions of e>
istcnce would pronounce it to be tt
last This was not the usual view
but Jefferson's words are evideno
that the Indian was a milestone O
which both i~ndividualiSt and institl
tionaliSt ~sharpened their
defence. He was q perpetual Robin
son Crusoc. q symbol Of Individuals
in its manhood and of institutiona
ism In It's childhood The European
| am inclined to think. greatly owe
rate the influence of the Indian upc
American life, but there can be I
question that in viewing America
history through the haze of an L
dian summer they have detected son
clements, democratic as well as r
mantle. that would otherwise ha,
passed unregarded.
COMING now to the short story.
one can fail to note since 1870 q Il
ulnph OF institutionalism. Irving
early as 1876 had emphasized t
local or institutional note in "R
Van Wrinkle" and The Legend
sleepy Hollow but he passed
most Immediately to "Bracebrid
JI,lI. md ..Tbol Volaa IF n Tr,,o,.