Published Paper Details:

The Scrutiny criticism of the novel which was composed of the studies of Jane Austen, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Dorothy Richardson, George Gissing and E.M. Forster by Q.D. Leavis, of Dickens by R.C. Churchill of Emily Bronte by G.D. Klingopulos besides those of D.H. Lawrence and the great tradition of novelists by F.R. Leavis is in itself a substantive contribution. Though it is a subject beyond the scope of the present work, it is worthwhile to examine a particular area of Scrutiny’s novel criticism which is related to its criticism of poetry. The two dominant ideas behind Scrutiny’s novel criticism are the close connection between the novel and morality, and the great novels as an affirmation of life. This moral dimension of novel is especially complex and revolves around a number of closely related ideas----------- a definite concept of form in fiction, the concepts of the novel as moral fable and dramatic poem, and a notion of moral enactment and moral exploration.An important aspect of Scrutiny’s novel criticism was the concept of the novel as dramatic poem. Scrutiny published a series of studies deriving from the concept of the poetic as constituent of the novel, in the course of which Leavis developed some of his most effective and shaping criticism, Including the works that appeared as The Great Tradition and D.H.Lawrence: Novelist. This new critical tactic employed by Scrutiny critics saw all Literature as poetry or read as if it were poetry, often at the expense of genre characteristics. This critical practice has often been challenged on several grounds but for Scrutiny critics it had immediate advantages. It allowed them to examine fiction with the same careful textual analysis and scrutiny which they brought to poetry---------two quote and analyse long passages, to demonstrate the operative function of ideas, and to develop symbolic and experimental patterns. Then, too, by insisting on the dramatic nature of such fiction, they could keep fidelity with rendered life and temporal progression, and avoid excessive symbol-hunting