Evening star., 1956-12-27

SFA6 Va eAAC GhS1toIl 1OIlllt
novelist Dostoyevsky had borrow,
"The cat and mouse game be-
tween the inspector and Ros-
kolnikov a wordless suicide,
when Stavrogin hangs himself
on a hook behind the door,"
Several hundred fellow profess
sors sat entranced in the Presi-
dental Ballroom Of the Statler
as the lady. Prof. That's S. Lind
strom of Montana State Univer-
sity, spoke on.
They were all attending the
convention of the Modern Lam
guage Association, which opened
its three-day annual meeting to-
day. Some 1000 college profess
sors and instructors from all
over the country have taken over
both the Statler and the May
flower Hotels for the meeting.
Exchange of News
Most of the 1000 were in the
halls. Most Of them were talk
ing.
Have 20 useen anybody from
Syracuse? They won't know me.
but have message for them?"
Are you an associate professor
or an assistant professor now?"
Where are you eating lunch?"
They passed tables marked
victorian Studies" or "Fulbright
Awards Information" seeking
friends. The MIA meetings are
a place for literature teachers
to brush up on the latest devel-
opments ntheir fields, but even
more they are a social gathering
and a job market.
Score on Ghosts
Prof. Lindstrom was totaling
the score in one novel of Dos
Itoyevsky:
Men and women swoon II
times there are two able
bodied ghosts and five appari-
tions four prophetic dreams
and six, condolences two
scenes of violence, in one of
(which the ensnared heroine de-
Ifends her virtue with two pistol
shots gone wild. and in the other
we witness a double ak murder"
The tensest scenes we're being
enacted in small rooms off the
hotel corridors. They were
marked Faculty Exchange
Appointments" and Faculty Ex-
change-Interviews. Inside de-
partment heads were cycling pro-
fessors looking for better jobs.
The professors were cycling salary
statistics and academic freedom
records.
From "that strange literary
fungus" the Gothic novel, Prof.
Lindstrom said to a half-filled
room, Dostoyevsky had taken "all
his sensational claptrap-epilep-
tic fits, suicides. duels, night
mares, slapped faces, death-bed
scenes, repentances, public con-
feSsions.
On Translating Chaucer
Other rooms began to fill with
professors gathered to hear other
papers read. A stapding-room-
only audience heard Prof. Mar
win Mudrick of the University Of
California say that no trans
Ilator since the 18th century had
been able to make the work of
Chaucer live.
Criticism was even more
pointed in another room. Prof.
IWylie Sypher of Simmons Col
Ilege spoke first on "Baroque in
ll7th Century, Poetry" Then he
sat down to hear Prof. j. Max
Patrick of Queens College take
ms theories apart.
Prof. Sypher's book" Prof.
Patrick said. is confusing {.
too complicated unsatisfac-
tory it's title is misleading"
Then Prof. Patrick constructed
some theories of his own.
In another room the critics
were being criticized. Prof. Ros-
sell Hope Robbins of Saugerties.
IN. Y. was teeing off on the New
Critics. like Eliot and Leavis
and the Scrutiny Group" The
students were suffering. he said.
adding:
Masters of arts in English
now coming from even we'll
known American universities
cannot spell correctly, cannot
write a grammatical letter and
have not read the staples OF
literature.
Critics Blamed
And he criticized the critics
for this state Of affairs.
THE new criticism cannot
be wholly responsible for this"
he said. but surely it is re-
sponsible in good part for the
ill-versed. the ill-spoken and
the ill-read."
In the Presidential Room the
lady professor continued. THE
symbol Of the Gothic novel,"
she said. was the haunted
caStle--romantic terror piled up
stone on stone"
In the halls. in the hustle
Of tweed jackets. smoking pipes
ano identification cards. a
dozen hands stretched out for
a dozen shoulders.
"Well. I declare. I haven't seen
you since that seminar"
"She married who? oh no.
not him."
Hes head Of the department
now. you know"
$500 Members
The highlight Of the year for
members OF the association. the
annual MI convention draus