The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-22
International Literature
CrO'os in Popularity among
american Workers, Writers
Poetry, Fiction and Criticism in New Issue; Vital
international Cultural Problems Discussed

~ gwen 40 UNDERSTANDING OF tnF
struggles OF the lower middle class
1 striving 10 maintain e foothoid Ia
the storm Of the crisis Dos Passes
depicts the defeat Of this class hy
the memorable forces OF business
chicanery and monopoly capital. he
traces the path which the members
Of this class follow until they become
aware that their only salvation lits
IN allying themselves with the wort
ers. This play will also prove to be
lesson in creative method to some
OF our young dramatists and fiction
writer's who have not learned as vet
how to avoid trite situations and
sloganized dialogue. Dos Passos shows
that the material Of the REVOLUTIONARY
playwright Is so genuine and alive
that an honest presentation OF it Is
more than sufficient TO affect deeply
the reader or spectator. There is no
need for shouting or hysteria.
What with the sixth Kuomintanq
campaign against the Soviet districts
in China, events in the youngest
Soviet Republic IN the world are 90
present Of burning interest TO work
ers. Agnes Smedley's fine description
OF the winning Of the peasants Tor
the anti-imperialist revolution and
the fall OF the city Of Shangpo to ta8
Red Army becomes not merely an
imaginative creation, but an his
torical document OF prime importance
This is q literature Of facts, but there
are times when facts in themselves
exceed anything which the artistic
sensibility might construct. The
workers and peasants Of China who
have been oppressed for centuries,
who have spoken In whispers, have
now raised their voices. Agnes Smed-
ley'S story resounds with the clash
OF armed classes in motion,
Marvin Klein ia the author OF
1888, short story which stands
out by the Vigor of it's onslaught on
the savagery Of the Nazis. Klein
tells the story Of q Jewish professor
who Ia brutally torn out Of his com
placent academic life and flung into
the arena Of the class struggle, The
story Is written In 8 staccato style
that is marked BY many happy in
novationS.
OF the contributions by Soviet
writer's, the most interesting is
"shvambrania," by L. Kassil The
theme s the life Of a doctors son
during the period Of the revolution
the dream life that he leads In the
privacy OF bis morbid irnaginings and
how the new Soviet life makes an
integrated and socially useful human
being out OF him. In his own inimit-
able words: Il aim to have not only
the half metre but my entire 1872
centimetres an integral part OF the
pruletarian revolution"
In literary criticism, besides an
article By sergei Dinamoy on Sher-
wood Anderson, the issue presents
the long awaited Marx and Engels
correspondence with LaSalle dealing
With hts dramatic tragedy, Franz Won
Sicklengen. The concrete and pro
found inSights Of Marx and Engels
into the problems Of tragedy and the
revolutionary viewpoint In literature
win undoubtedly nlumine many dark
corners In our young proletarian
criticism. Strangely enough, there
have been critics, both here and In
the Soviet Union, who have denied
the possibility Of revolutionary trag-
edy, They have seen In tragedy a
tendency to defeatism. These stupid
tiles are utterly destroyed by this cor
which, in the words Of
the editors, shows what methods
revolutionary ideologist OF prolet.
arian party would adopt in srtis-
tically presenting a tragedy OF rev.
olution." In the preceding issue OF
the magazine, the late A. Lunachar-
sky wrote with great penetration
concerning the role Of tragedy In pro-
ietarian literature.
The issue is rounded out By a series
OF chronicles detailing the develop
ments in literature the world over.
There is al interesting letter from
Jack Conroy, and an article BIZ
Nathaniel Buchwald on the first in
ternationai olympiad Of revolutionary
theatres. But no review would be
complete without mentioning the
Of new artist, Helios
Comes, a Spanish Communist, whose
drawings Of Spanish workers and
peasants In action heightens the ef-
Of the issue.
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