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Critics continue to discuss the work of Egon Wolff with respect to his plays written before 1973. However, most have failed to recognize seven of his plays written after the military coup that changed the face of Chilean politics, economy and culture. I have studied Wolff's complete works in order to determine whether the conditions under which he wrote had somehow affected his dramaturgy. In addition, the high international acclaim given to Los invasores (1963) and Flores de papel (1970) indicates that Wolff had begun a theatrical career comparable to that of the greatest playwrights of this century. This fact alone merited further investigation into his theatre after 1973. – My study is a sociohistorical approach integrated with Erich FROMM's humanistic psychoanalysis in order to understand Wolff's cultural production during critical periods in history. Allusions to the Chilean historical moment throughout Wolff's production reveal a concern for the oppressive conditions, yet they do not fall into the brash political criticism increasingly prevalent throughout the Pinochet era. Surprisingly, a comic spirit and technique prevails in Wolff's work of the period. This contrasts sharply with the tragic mode of many of Wolff's first era plays, but serves very well to provide hope for a better future for the Chilean spectator. The hope in Wolff's Secon-era plays is possible only if traditional values of love and humanism are retained by individuals and society alike. Brotherly love and humanism are the unifying themes of Wolff's entire repertoire and reflect Erich FROMM's concerns for modern society.
Daniel Burston and Sharna Olfman's note that early in his career Fromm had begun to question Freud's historical perspective that assumed that the ad-vancement of society would necessarily create a stronger repression of instinc-tual drives. According to Freud, there were no free rides on the route to pro-gress, and any cultural advancement would leave in its wake a legacy of com-mon unhappiness. Regardless of the merits of this position, Freud's sober out-look had the virtue of challenging the belief that reason would bring gradual and inexorable progress. Fromm also thought that society had a repressive function, but as Burston and Oilman point out, Fromm's approach was qualitative rather than quantitative. Social demands based on economic modes of production and unequal distribution of goods would conflict with human demands for freedom and happiness. The conflict between social demands and human aspirations had to be analyzed for each particular case and could not be generalized into false historical categories as Freud's theory did.
The decline of the Liberal Arts in the 21st century is rooted in late 20th century trends, including grade inflation, the decline of rational authority, the rise of anonymous authority, and consumerism, which abets the tendency to elevate the pursuit of students’ >self-esteem< above scholarly rigor. While the Left and the Right are apt to blame their ideological opponents, both share some responsibility for this state of af-fairs, which can only be remedied if they own up to their own erroneous oversights, and agree to work together.