The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.

Such impulses are certainly very strong perhaps even stronger than most of us know. Academic life
Lionel Trilling was born in Queens New York City the son of Fannie (née Cohen) who was from London and David Trilling a tailor from Bialystok in Poland. “New York Intellectuals” Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism.

S. Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4 1905 – November 5 1975) was an American literary critic author and teacher. Unlike many of his contemporaries he has been a subject of continued interest.