положението

The Syndicate of Literary Critics in France published a volume of the materials of the First International Colloquium of Literary Critics, held in Paris from 4 to 8 June 1962. The Syndicate of Literary Critics is an association founded in 1948 by the late prominent literary critic Robert Kemp, who was its chairman until his death in 1959. This syndicate took the initiative for the first international meeting of literary critics, with the participation of representatives from sixteen countries, including the USSR and the USA. Representatives from the socialist countries: Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, also attended the meeting. The meeting was opened on June 4 with a welcoming speech by the Director General of the Department of Literature and Art at the Ministry of Culture, Gaëtan Picon, himself a renowned literary critic and essayist, author of a number of works such as "Panorama of New French Literature", "Panorama of Contemporary Ideas", "Introduction to an Aesthetics of Literature", etc. In his welcoming speech, Gaëtan Picon also developed some thoughts on the role and mission of literary criticism, stating, among other things: "One is struck by the insight and depth of contemporary criticism. Our good teachers of the last century would be surprised if they read some of today's critics. Rimbaud would not have felt any surprise at all before René Chard, nor Baudelaire before Henri Michaux, but Jules Lemaître, of course, or the very perceptive Sainte-Beuve would have felt a certain surprise before the methods of Georges Poulet, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and even - despite the clarity of the vision - before the writings of a Curtius or a Marcel Raymond.