THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN LITERATURE

A Professor of the Shepherd State Teachers' College in West Virginia tries herein to open up new ways of treating literature by applying psychology to it, and hoping that the individual will gain thereby a greater subjective appreciation. The book, although revealing a varied and comprehensive background, falls down in the presentation which is uninteresting and uneven. One has a feeling throughout that the points are never fully developed, the classifications arbitrary. Phillips takes up various psychological principles and applies them to literature, from symbolism, suggestion, free will, to conflicting emotions, sex, social and abnormal psychology, etc. Largely a text book approach, and a text book format, for a restricted teacher-student market, although the path of inquiry is of interest.