Philip Rahv
Encyclopedia
Philip Rahv was an American literary critic and essayist.
, Ukraine
, to a Jewish family under the name Ivan Greenberg. He made his way to the United States by way of Palestine
and worked as a teacher of Hebrew
.
He joined the American Communist Party in 1932. He is noted for his role in founding Partisan Review
with William Phillips
in 1933. The journal broke with the Soviet line in 1937 in the wake of the Moscow Trials
and maintained an ongoing feud with Stalinist
Popular Front advocates such as Granville Hicks
of New Masses. As an independent publication, Partisan Review
went on to become the most influential literary journal of the period. According to Partisan Review
co-editor William Barrett
's "The Truants: Adventures Among the Intellectuals", the Marxist Rahv had a healthy contempt for "Liberals", whom he viewed as appeasers of Joseph Stalin's post-World War II
Soviet Union. "He [Rahv] read the Liberal weeklies and the New York Times indefatigably, and the more he read, the more apoplectic he became. "Those goddamned Liberals, " he fumed, "they'll end up giving away the whole of Western Europe to Stalin. He won't even have to make a push for it, they'll make a present of it to him."
Philip Rahv was a beacon of the New York intelligentsia. When the narrator of Robert Lowell
's poem, Man and Wife meets his future wife, he "outdrank the Rahvs in the heat/of Greenwich Village, fainting at your feet." Rahv's work at Partisan Review
, which he co-founded, put him at the center of an intellectual circle that included Dwight Macdonald
, Lionel Trilling
, Hannah Arendt
, Mary McCarthy
, Alfred Kazin
, Delmore Schwartz
, Sidney Hook
, William Barrett
, and many other intellectuals of the period. Rahv remained a Marxist and was committed to the idea of achieving a synthesis of radical social criticism and literary excellence.
He is also known for his later hostility toward Myth Criticism in the style of Northrop Frye
. As he put it, "What the craze for myth represents most of all is the fear of history."
Rahv taught at Brandeis University
in his later years and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, in 1973, in what appeared to be suicide.
MODERN OCCASIONS Edited by Philip Rahv. V.1/1-v.2/2 Fall 1970-Spring 1972. Is this complete?
Life
He was born in KupinKupin
Kupin may refer to:*Kupin, Elbląg County, village in northern Poland*Kupin, Iława County in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship *Kupyn, village in Ukraine...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, to a Jewish family under the name Ivan Greenberg. He made his way to the United States by way of Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and worked as a teacher of Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
He joined the American Communist Party in 1932. He is noted for his role in founding Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
with William Phillips
William Phillips (editor)
William Phillips was an American editor, writer, and public intellectual, who co-founded the Partisan Review. Together with co-editor Philip Rahv, Phillips made the Partisan Review into one of the foremost journals of politics, literature, and the arts, particularly from the 1930s through the 1950s...
in 1933. The journal broke with the Soviet line in 1937 in the wake of the Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
and maintained an ongoing feud with Stalinist
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
Popular Front advocates such as Granville Hicks
Granville Hicks
Granville Hicks was an American Marxist as well as an anti-Marxist novelist, literary critic, educator, and editor.-Life:...
of New Masses. As an independent publication, Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
went on to become the most influential literary journal of the period. According to Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
co-editor William Barrett
William Barrett
William Barrett may refer to:*William Barrett *William Barrett *William Barrett , American philosopher and critic*William A. Barrett , American politician and a member of the Democratic Party...
's "The Truants: Adventures Among the Intellectuals", the Marxist Rahv had a healthy contempt for "Liberals", whom he viewed as appeasers of Joseph Stalin's post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Soviet Union. "He [Rahv] read the Liberal weeklies and the New York Times indefatigably, and the more he read, the more apoplectic he became. "Those goddamned Liberals, " he fumed, "they'll end up giving away the whole of Western Europe to Stalin. He won't even have to make a push for it, they'll make a present of it to him."
Philip Rahv was a beacon of the New York intelligentsia. When the narrator of Robert Lowell
Robert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
's poem, Man and Wife meets his future wife, he "outdrank the Rahvs in the heat/of Greenwich Village, fainting at your feet." Rahv's work at Partisan Review
Partisan Review
Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
, which he co-founded, put him at the center of an intellectual circle that included Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, philosopher, and political radical.-Early life and career:...
, Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...
, Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy (author)
Mary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
, Alfred Kazin
Alfred Kazin
Alfred Kazin was an American writer and literary critic, many of whose writings depicted the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America....
, Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz
Delmore Schwartz was an American poet and short story writer from Brooklyn, New York.-Biography:Schwartz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Harry and Rose, both Romanian Jews, separated when Schwartz was nine, and their divorce had a profound effect on him. Later, in 1930,...
, Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook was an American pragmatic philosopher known for his contributions to public debates.A student of John Dewey, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history, of education, politics, and of ethics. After embracing Marxism in his youth, Hook was known for his criticisms of...
, William Barrett
William Barrett
William Barrett may refer to:*William Barrett *William Barrett *William Barrett , American philosopher and critic*William A. Barrett , American politician and a member of the Democratic Party...
, and many other intellectuals of the period. Rahv remained a Marxist and was committed to the idea of achieving a synthesis of radical social criticism and literary excellence.
He is also known for his later hostility toward Myth Criticism in the style of Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
. As he put it, "What the craze for myth represents most of all is the fear of history."
Rahv taught at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
in his later years and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, in 1973, in what appeared to be suicide.
Works
- Image and Idea (1949) - essays
- The Myth and the Powerhouse (1965) - essays
- Literature and the Sixth Sense (1969) - essays
See also
- New York Intellectuals
- Anti-Stalinist leftAnti-Stalinist leftThe anti-Stalinist left is an element of left-wing politics that is critical of Joseph Stalin's policies and the political system that developed in the Soviet Union under his rule...
MODERN OCCASIONS Edited by Philip Rahv. V.1/1-v.2/2 Fall 1970-Spring 1972. Is this complete?