The Brotherhood of Sinners: Literary Calvinism

Abstract

IT may have taken Watergate to remind us of a persistent motif in American thought which, despite its apparent contradiction of some cherished American values, nevertheless provides an insight into some deeply felt national sentiments. I call it literary Calvinism because it is in no sense an orthodox version of Calvinist dogma, but rather an application of two basic Calvinist tenets to a literary point of view. The results of that application go beyond purely literary concerns: they are at once political, psychological, and esthetic-as the implications of any significant literary theory must be. If we have found it difficult to recognize the power and significance of literary Calvinism, it is because its manifest meanings seem so far removed from the expansive, optimistic tenor of so much American thought. Calvinism sounds so dreadfully conservative and implies so closed a system that we don't want to locate it anywhere close to our own ideas. And as a matter of fact, literary Calvinism, after taking a hard look at human beings and the universe, emerges with some dark conclusions that no amount of optimism can mollify. Yet the overall strategy which emerges from that point of view is not what we might expect it to be. It is certainly not