to follow ; Reading the Social in American Literary Naturalism: Theodore Dreiser and Sergei Dinamov

This essay examines notions of “society,” and the “social,” terms that have carried powerful charges in debates over literary naturalism, yet whose meaning is more complex than is often granted in literary critical discourse. After a brief introductory discussion of Theodore Dreiser’s short story “Will You Please Walk Into My Parlor?” it particularizes the “social” in Dreiser’s work through the lens of the nation, primarily by close attention to the writings of Sergei Sergeevitch Dinamov (1901-1939). A Russian literary critic interested in Dreiser’s depiction of the U.S.A. as one possible modernity, Dinamov became both a critical friend to Dreiser and a prime mediator of his work to the U.S.S.R. in the 1920s and 1930s. The essay draws upon the two men’s private correspondence, and translations of Dinamov’s critical prefaces to Dreiser’s works, to delineate his reading of Dreiser in its national and historical terms. On the one hand, it calls attention to Dinamov’s acuity and integrity as a reader and critic, and to the lively debates over literature, society, and politics taking place in the letters he exchanged with Dreiser. On the other hand, it demonstrates symmetries and parallels in Dreiser’s critical reception in the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., which both add to our understanding of historical debates over literature and politics, and help explain the continuingly troublesome nature of literary naturalism.