Test of Powers

Franco Fortini (1917–94) was a poet, essayist, literary critic, Marxist intellectual, and translator of Brecht, Goethe, and Kafka, among others. He is the author of The Dogs of Sinai, also published by Seagull Books. Alberto Toscano teaches at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. He is the author of Fanaticism and Late Fascism and coeditor of The SAGE Handbook of Marxism.

“An elegant and provocative project—the first book of Fortini’s prose to appear in English translation—that challenges one’s political assumptions about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, not only at the time of the Six-Day War but also today . . . Toscano has done a masterful job of rendering Fortini’s often difficult prose into a fluid and concise English.”

• Translator’s Introduction: The Labour of Division Translator’s AcknowledgementsPreface to the First Edition (1965) Preface to the Second Edition (1969) PART I: The Literary InstitutionI. Eroticism and Literature II. A Test of PowersIII. ClarificationsIV. Cunning as Doves V. Literary Institutions and the Progress of the Regime VI. Two Avant-gardes VII. Avant-garde and Mediation VIII. Written and Spoken PART II: The Condition of the GuestI. Radek’s Hands II. The Writers’ Mandate and the End of Anti-Fascism III. In Defence of the Idiot PART III: Of Some CriticsI. Reading Spitzer II. Mimesis III. Deus Absconditus IV. Lukács in Italy V. The Young Lukács VI. The Passage of Joy PART IV: For Some BooksI. For Herzen II. Rereading Pasternak III. Notes on Proust IV. Tolstoy, the Master and the Man V. Kafka’s Men and the Criticism of Things VI. Two Returns VII. Brecht or the Talking Horse VIII. The Chinese Spectre