The Criterion
The Criterion (Engl. The scale ) was a British literary magazine , by TS Eliot was founded and published from 1922 to 1939. During the entire period, Eliot was editor and editorial director and reserved the right to choose the published texts.
The magazine appeared quarterly, in 1927 and 1928 temporarily also monthly, and offered a platform primarily for literary criticism and poetological essays . In some cases, however, literary texts and political writings were also published. Eliot initially financed it from private donations until it was taken over by the publishing house Faber & Gwyer (later Faber & Faber ) in 1925 . Numerous well-known authors such as Virginia Woolf , Ezra Pound , William Butler Yeats and WH Auden have contributed to The Criterion . In addition, each issue contains at least one text by Eliot himself. In a comment he sat down each feuilletonistisch with current events apart. Some of Eliot's literary texts were also published for the first time in the magazine (sometimes in early versions that differ from those published later), such as The Waste Land and The Hollow Men . The Criterion was also the first to print English translations of texts by Marcel Proust and Paul Valéry .
In January 1926, Eliot himself outlined the meaning of his magazine in an editorial. It should primarily be literary oriented, but not set itself apart from the rest of current affairs. In his opinion, a sharp line between literature and life could not be drawn without destroying the life of literature. For this reason, it seemed essential to him to also publish texts on politics and other current affairs. In the course of time, The Criterion became increasingly political, until, even in Eliot's opinion, the framework of a literary magazine was broken - in the last edition in 1939, he admitted his failure as editor in a farewell text, without, however, of the fundamental need for such a medium for renewal to move away from the “European spirit”.
Eliot himself published harsh and polemical reviews in The Criterion that dealt with Winston Churchill , Bertrand Russell , Sigmund Freud and HG Wells , among others . The selection of the published texts was based largely on his personal preferences and interests (although he also allowed opposing voices to be heard). In particular, he often dealt critically with romantic and modern thinking. Eliot took his work as editor of the magazine very seriously and saw it as part of an obligation to reach a broad audience as a writer.
The Criterion is considered to be one of the most important literary magazines of the modern era. Individual issues also appeared under the titles The New Criterion and The Monthly Criterion .
supporting documents
- ^ A b c Johannes Kleinstück: TS Eliot , Rowohlt: Reinbek bei Hamburg (1966), p. 87ff.
- ↑ Nicholas Sabloff: The Nursery of Genius ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , as seen on October 25, 2009
