Tradition and Innovation in Contemporary Literature [antikvár]

PREFACE International P.E.N, has, in recent years, developed the welcome practice of putting some literary issue on the agenda of its smaller conferences as well as its congresses. On all such occasions the writers were found to be willing to join in discussions of questions, theoretical as well as practical, of their craft, and many of them made useful contributions to the debate. The very essence of the problems is, of course, never decided in such common debates—you write your own work, just as you face your own death. Nevertheless, the exchange of ideas may help along a clearer vision, sharpen the eye for delicate nuances, and may help overcome erroneous views. No writer has ever been the worse yet for seeing more clearly in certain matters of principle or finding a more accurate definition of some problem, to say nothing of the immense benefit critics, theoreticians and readers may derive from such discussions among writers. It would be rather strange—and dangerous—if writers, of all people, were to shun debating problems of literature. At P.E.N, congresses and conferences held in recent years, there has been much talk about the relationship between literature and science, literature and the cinema and television, about questions of translating poetry, fiction and drama, about the relationship between the writer and the community, about regional literatures, etc. The conference held in Budapest in the autumn of 1964 added to this complexity of themes the topic "Tradition and Innovation." This issue gave rise to a lively—and, in our view, useful— debate. Some speakers even went so far as to question the correctness of formulation of the very issue, and chal- 5