Adhering To Tradition In The Ever Changing World.

F. R. Leavis is the most prominent literature critic in Britain in the 20th century. The Great Tradition is one of his most important works of the literature criticism. In this book, Leavis expresses his dissatisfaction of the writing style of the British literature history, the"encyclopedic"style, that is, listing all the writers and their works. He believes that in the literature criticism an appropriate consciousness of distinction should be introduced and the critics should have a proper standpoint and make appropriate judgements. Therefore, in order to reform the history of literature, Leavis chooses some novelists and their works as the representatives of the tremendous amount of the literature works. These novelists include Jane Austin, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence. And they are the core of the great tradition of the British novels.Under the influence of modernism, the breakthrough and the innovation become the mainstream of the 20th century. However the art of literature is different from the art of science. The history of science is an incessant process of substitution and evolvement, while the history of literature is an incessant process of accumulation and enrichment. Furthermore, the literature criticism is closely related with and constantly nourished by the traditional literature. Leavis believes that the reason that these great novelists relate with each other and inherit their predecessors, thus forming a tradition, is that they bring into full play all the potentialities of life, art and human nature. They are also unique in their writing styles and techniques. However Leavis does not intend to establish an idealized literature God or change the literature reality by generally distinguishing different novelists. Rather, the most important task is to sort different works to proper categories.In Leavis'evaluation of the novelists and their works, his focus is...