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Following paragraph is from the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin:
Antagonised by Zamyatin's insistence on telling the truth as he saw it, by his open disdain for anything that smacked of literary servility.
I know servility means a willingness to serve. But in the above paragraph, it appears that "literary servility" has been used as something bad.
So, what is the meaning of literary servility in the above paragraph?
Literary means connected with literature. Servility, as you rightly mentioned, is the eagerness to serve and please someone, which in itself portrays negativity.
Hence, the phrase literary servility, refers to producing literature which is too eager to serve (in this case, serve the establishment or the ruling party).
Conclusively, Zamyatin didn't respect such works of literature which praised the establishment without criticizing them.
