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Straws in the world wind: John G. Neihardt's literary and social criticism
Abstract
John G. Neihardt is well known for books such as Black Elk Speaks and A Cycle of the West. What is not so familiar is a body of critical writing that spanned more than three decades and comprised over 2500 reviews and essays that appeared in newspapers including the New York Times Book Review, the Minneapolis Journal, the Kansas City Journal-Post and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . This dissertation presents excerpts or the entire text of 177 of these essays. The essays explore the range of Neihardt's critical writing as he responded to the contemporary literature of his day and presented his views on the role of art and the artist, the guiding principles that underlie the writing of Black Elk Speak and A Cycle of the West. Evident in the writings that drew Neihardt's attention—subjects as diverse as art, philosophy, politics, social criticism, new physics, and mysticism—are the seeds of a shift in cultural direction, a movement that has only gained momentum as the twentieth century comes to a close. In his criticism Neihardt wrote against both the elitism of academic writing and the softness of popular criticism. He rejected academy's isolation from the culture of the people, and he feared the populace's tendency to follow individual caprice without respect for, or even worse, knowledge of, standards. Explicit in his criticism is a recognition of the function of art as an integrating principle—“cosmos as opposed to the prevailing cultural chaos”—and the inextricable connection of literary to social values. The poet is particularly fitted to serve as critic, Neihardt believed. By standing at the boundaries of ordinary consciousness, he can interpret, heighten awareness, and put mystery into language for the rest of us.
Subject Area
American literature
Recommended Citation
Utecht, Lori Kay Holm, "Straws in the world wind: John G. Neihardt's literary and social criticism" (1999). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9942162.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9942162