I. TERMINOLOGY
The terms “individualism” and “genius” have gone
through many changes of meaning and cannot even
now be used in an unequivocal way. Individualism will
here be understood not only as “the individual pursuing
his own ends or following his own ideas” (Murray, A
New English Dictionary [1901], V), but also as the
self-conscious, reflective conduct of single persons or
groups of persons allied by common interests, ideals,
and purposes. Genius is an infinitely more vacillating
term, and its many meanings since antiquity have been
recorded in Murray's New English Dictionary. The
concern here is primarily with the meaning the term
acquired in the course of the eighteenth century as
denoting the creative powers and outstanding original-
ity of uncommonly endowed, exalted individuals.
While the modern literature on individualism in gen-
eral is scarce and unsatisfactory and on individualism
in art and artists practically nonexistent, that on genius
is vast, diversified, and illuminating. Written mainly
by literary critics, it discusses almost exclusively poetry
and poets. Since the fifteenth century artists have be-
lieved in a close alliance between the sister arts, the
word and the picture—the Horatian Ut pictura poesis
had widest currency for over 300 years—and thus a
concentration on artistic genius without taking into
account literary criticism would tend to distort the
historical evolution.
