Miss Neatby and the “Heights”

REVrEWS 549 more than ready to believe that a poet bas a peculiar responsibility towards "Gefiiblskultur"; but I should feel myself bound to be more circumspect than Dr. Boeschenstein in my judgment, for instance, of Kafka, who is an instance of signal failure in feeling, and yet no less an impressive artist. Navalis is one of several authors who fall short by Dr. Boeschenstein's reckoning and seem to demand a different approach. In the case of HOlderlin there is a further and allied danger inherent in the method. If one uses a non-aesthetic criterion of judgment, one is liable to treat poetic statements as if they were rational, prosaic statements, and in so doing Dr. Boeschenstein seems to me to fail to do justice to HolderHn. Or again, as in the case of Gotthelf and Jean Paul, one can over-estimate them through concentrating on what is intellectually intended by the poet instead of on what is imaginatively realized in the work. I believe all the best critics have worked upon non-aesthetic principles. but the point I would make is that the relationship between artistic utterance and Hfe is usually much more intricate and complex than Dr. Boeschenstein always allows for. Behind this lies another problem, which could be fully discussed only when we have Dr. Boeschenstein's second volume. Already in Goethe, the "problematic" of "Geflihlskultur" is more complex and baffiing than in the Swiss writers. Does he not go deeper than they?-and Kleist too? The richness of European literature of the last hundred and fifty years is more closely connected with questionings than with affirmations. Can the artist ignore these questionings, or always resolve them positively. when they belong to our modern society, the world of aUf experience? Towards the end of his book Dr. Boeschenstein writes: "Perhaps the climax of 'Gefiihlskultur ' only lasts so long as it is possible to make reverence for the world, wherever it springs from, the basis of life and activity." I think he is right. But when this "cosmic optimism" has been replaced by "cosmic uncertainty ," can the poets ignore it? Or better, might it not be a sign of their loyalty to "Gefliblskultur" if in these circumstances they seem to succumb to despair? German literature has been very rich in its response to the spiritual and social realities of the modern world, and its achievement is extremely difficult to treat systematically. I believe that Dr. Boescbenstein's concept of "Gefilhlskultur," handled with the skill and insight be shows, is an admirable instrument for this task; and his second volume will be awaited with impatience. RoY PASCAL Miss Neatby and the" Heights" The publication of Professor Hilda Neatby's So Little for the Mind in October 1953 resulted in a year-long debate on the content of Canadian education. Miss Neatby's concern was with the curriculum-with what subjects were being taught in what schools and, in so far as form is indistinguishable from matter, with how those subjects were being taught in those schools. The curriculum continued to occupy her attention in her two subsequent publications, The Debt of Our Reason and A Temperate Dispute, 550 REVIEWS which appeared, respectively, in April and October, 1954; and the curriculum remained the centre of attention for her supporters and opponents so long as her book remained the focal point of Canadian educational thought. Though education is clearly a more prominent issue in 1957 than in 1953 or 1954, we have heard little recently about content. Now the emphasis has shifted to the problems of supply and demand. How can we ensure that we will have twice as many engineering graduates in 1967 as we had in 1957? How can we be sure that no Canadian student of high intelligence is prevented from proceeding to university? How can we persuade government, industry, the wealthy citizen to provide the funds needed to educate the greatly increased number of students who are expected to matriculate in the 1960's? How, in short, can we arrange for the Canadian universities to accommodate a doubled enrolment within a decade? These are the questions that have been the subject of public educational debate for...