Liberal Imagination

The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling, 284 pages

The Liberal Imagination is Lionel Trilling's seminal collection of essays, not originally connected but here identified as more or less strongly expressing a common theme, tracing the shape of the liberal approach to literature.   Trilling's "liberalism" is the American variety of the '40s and '50s, which he minimally defines as "a ready if mild suspiciousness of the profit motive, a belief in progress, science, social legislation, planning, and international cooperation".  The literature he considers is dominated by the form of the novel, which he considers as fundamentally an exploration of social class conflict.

It is interesting how much of the book involves Trilling wrestling with his touchstones, especially Freud, struggling to find a way to reconcile their influence with the value he places on humanism and the imagination.  Although he is firm in his refusal to subordinate literature to philosophy, however, he sometimes seems close to considering it a mere lagniappe to the right politics.  Balanced against this temptation are his active intellect and his always evident love for literature.