Two Cultures?: The Significance of C. P. Snow (Canto Classics)
Cambridge University Press, 8/29/2013
EAN 9781107617353, ISBN10: 1107617359
Paperback, 121 pages, 21.3 x 13.8 x 1 cm
Language: English
In this first annotated edition of F. R. Leavis' famous critique of C. P. Snow's influential argument about 'the two cultures', Stefan Collini reappraises both its literary tactics and its purpose as cultural criticism. The edition will enable new generations of readers to understand what was at stake in the dispute and to appreciate the enduring relevance of Leavis's attack on the goal of economic growth. In his comprehensive introduction Collini situates Leavis's critique within the wider context of debates about 'modernity' and 'prosperity', not just the 'two cultures' of literature and science. Collini emphasizes the difficulties faced by the cultural critic in challenging widely-held views and offers an illuminating analysis of Leavis's style. The edition provides full notes to references and allusions in Leavis's texts.
Introduction Stefan Collini
Note on further reading
A note on the text
Two Cultures? The Significance of C. P. Snow (1962)
Luddites? Or, There Is Only One Culture (1966)
Notes.
Advance praise: 'Fifty years after Lionel Trilling established the terms of subsequent commentary on F. R. Leavis's Richmond Lecture, Stefan Collini decisively and triumphantly reframes the discussion. By explaining a tone that has struck so many observers as inexplicable, Collini places Leavis's seemingly outrageous lecture within a tradition of cultural criticism that continues to this day.' Guy Ortolano, author of The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain