_-001.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Political fiction employsnarrative tocomment onpolitical events, systems and theories. Works of politicalfiction, such aspolitical novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality".[1] The political novel overlaps with thesocial novel,proletarian novel, andsocial science fiction.
Plato'sRepublic, aSocratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works ofphilosophy andpolitical theory, both intellectually and historically.[2][3] TheRepublic is concerned withjustice (δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the justcity-state, and the just man.[4] Other influential politically themed works includeThomas More'sUtopia (1516),Jonathan Swift'sGulliver's Travels (1726),Voltaire'sCandide (1759), andHarriet Beecher Stowe'sUncle Tom's Cabin (1852).
Political fiction frequently employssatire, often in theutopian and dystopian genres.This includestotalitariandystopias of the early 20th century such asJack London'sThe Iron Heel,Sinclair Lewis'It Can't Happen Here, andGeorge Orwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four.
TheGreek playwrightAristophanes' plays are known for their political and social satire,[5] particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general,Cleon, in plays such asThe Knights. Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent.[5][6][7][8] Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease.[9] His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedianMenander, whose early play,Drunkenness, contains an attack on the politician,Callimedon.
Jonathan Swift'sA Modest Proposal (1729) is an 18th-centuryJuvenaliansatiricalessay in which he suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. The satiricalhyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well asBritish policy toward theIrish in general.
George Orwell'sAnimal Farm (1945) is anallegorical anddystopian novella which satirises theRussian Revolution of 1917 and theSoviet Union'sStalinist era.[10] Orwell, ademocratic socialist,[11] was a critic ofJoseph Stalin and was hostile to Moscow-directedStalinism—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during theSpanish Civil War.[12] The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutaldictatorship, built upon acult of personality and enforced bya reign of terror. Orwell described hisAnimal Farm as "asatirical tale against Stalin",[13] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) he wrote thatAnimal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole."
Orwell's most famous work, however, isNineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such asBig Brother,doublethink,thoughtcrime,Newspeak,Room 101,telescreen,2 + 2 = 5, andmemory hole, have entered into common use.Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective "Orwellian", which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of recorded history by atotalitarian orauthoritarian state.[14]
The poetJan Kochanowski's playThe Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578), the firsttragedy written in thePolish language, recounts an incident leading up to theTrojan War. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day.[15]
The bookUtopia (1516), written bySir Thomas More, talk about a story of a different world compared to the one they live in. The character Thomas More is sent byKing Henry VIII of England to negotiate the English wool trade. There he meets a man by the name Raphael Hythloday. He is a man that has been to the island on Utopia. He explains to More how their entire philosophy is to find happiness and share everything collectively; in this society, money does not exist, which starkly contrasts with the ascendant commercial empires in Thomas More's Europe.[16]
The politicalcomedyThe Return of the Deputy (1790), byJulian Ursyn Niemcewicz—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms ofTadeusz Kościuszko—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historicFour-Year Sejm of 1788–92. The comedy's premiere in January 1791 was an enormous success, sparking widespread debate, royal communiques, and diplomatic correspondence. As Niemcewicz had hoped, it set the stage for passage of Poland's epochalConstitution of 3 May 1791, which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after theUnited States Constitution implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizingfree election of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructiveliberum veto; of granting greater rights topeasants and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interestednoble class; and of promoting a more active Polish role in international affairs, in the interest of stopping the depredations of Poland's neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (who will in 1795 complete the dismemberment of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Romantic interest is provided by a rivalry between a reformer and a conservative for a young lady's hand—which is won by the proponent of reforms.[17]
An early example of the political novel isThe Betrothed (1827) byAlessandro Manzoni, an Italianhistorical novel. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule, it has been seen sometimes as a veiled attack on theAustrian Empire, which controlledItaly at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language.[18]
In the 1840s British politicianBenjamin Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. WithConingsby; or, The New Generation (1844), Disraeli, in historianRobert Blake's view, "infused the novel genre with political sensibility, espousing the belief that England's future as a world power depended not on the complacent old guard, but on youthful, idealistic politicians."[19]Coningsby was followed bySybil; or, The Two Nations (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed thanConingsby; the "two nations" of its subtitle referred to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. The last of Disraeli's political-novel trilogy,Tancred; or, The New Crusade (1847), promoted the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality.[19]
Ivan Turgenev wroteFathers and Sons (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw betweenRussia's liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russiannihilist movement among their sons. Both the nihilists and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with theSlavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in itstraditional spirituality. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "nihilism", which became widely used after the novel was published.[20]
The Polish writerBolesław Prus' novel,Pharaoh (1895), is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of itsTwentieth Dynasty andNew Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challengethe powers that be are vulnerable to co-option,seduction, subornation,defamation, intimidation, andassassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, ofknowledge. Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's intimate awareness of the final demise of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before he completedPharaoh. This is a political awareness that Prus shared with his 10-years-junior novelist compatriot,Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of Prus' writings.Pharaoh has been translated into 23 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polishfeature film.[21] It is also known to have beenJoseph Stalin's favourite book.[22]
Joseph Conrad wrote several novels with political themes:Nostromo (1904),The Secret Agent (1907), andUnder Western Eyes (1911).Nostromo (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitiousSouth American country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel'seponymous "Nostromo" (Italian for "our man")—is instructed by English-descended silver-mine owner Charles Gould to take Gould's silver abroad so that it will not fall into the hands of revolutionaries.[23] The role of politics is paramount inThe Secret Agent, as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroyGreenwich Observatory is in itself anarchistic. Vladimir asserts that the bombing "must be purely destructive" and that the anarchists who will be implicated as the architects of the explosion "should make it clear that [they] are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation."[24] However, the political form of anarchism is ultimately controlled in the novel: the only supposed politically motivated act is orchestrated by a secret government agency. Conrad's third political novel,Under Western Eyes, is connected to Russian history. Its first audience read it against the backdrop of the failedRevolution of 1905 and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as therevolutions of 1917.[25] Conrad's earlier novella,Heart of Darkness (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of Europeancolonial depredations inAfrica, which Conrad witnessed during his employ in theBelgian Congo.[26]
John Steinbeck's novelThe Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some of Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as apropagandist and asocialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book's depiction of California farmers' attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a 'pack of lies' and labeled it 'communist propaganda'".[27] Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel[28] and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit.
The Quiet American (1955) by English novelistGraham Greene questions the foundations of growing American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s. The novel has received much attention due to its prediction of the outcome of the Vietnam War and subsequent American foreign policy since the 1950s. Graham Greene portrays a U.S. official named Pyle as so blinded byAmerican exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent forThe Times andLe Figaro inFrench Indochina in 1951–54.[29]
The Gay Place (1961) is a set of politically themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American authorBilly Lee Brammer. Set in an unnamed state identical to Texas, each novella has a different protagonist: Roy Sherwood, a member of the state legislature; Neil Christiansen, the state's junior senator; and Jay McGown, the governor's speech-writer. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician (said to have been based on Brammer's mentorLyndon Johnson[30]) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine,[31]Johnson's wifeLady Bird, and his brotherSam Houston Johnson.[30] The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written.[32][33][34]
Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlanticmigrant literature in French, Spanish, and English, with new narratives about political topics relating to global debt, labor abuses, mass migration, and environmental crises in the Global South.[35] Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems.[35] Fatou Diome, a Senegalese immigrant living France since the 1990s, writes political fiction about her experiences on France's unwelcoming borders that are dominated by white Christian culture.[36] The work of Guadeloupean authorMaryse Condé also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles areSégou (1984) andSégou II (1985). Set in historical Segou (now part of Mali), the novels examine the violent legacies of the slave trade, Islam, Christianity, and colonization (from 1797 to 1860).[37][38] A bold critic of the presidency ofNicolas Sarkozy, French novelistMarie Ndiayes won thePrix Goncourt forThree Strong Women (2009) about patriarchal control.[39]
Theproletarian novel is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel,[40] socialist novel,[41]social-problem novel (also problem novel, sociological novel, orsocial novel),[42] propaganda or thesis novel,[43] andsocialist-realism novel. The intention of the writers of proletarian literature is to lift the workers from the slums by inspiring them to embrace the possibilities of social change or of a political revolution. As such, it is a form of political fiction.
The proletarian novel maycomment onpolitical events, systems, and theories, and is frequently seen as an instrument to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. Proletarian literature is created especially bycommunist,socialist, andanarchist authors. It is about the lives of the poor, and the period from 1930 to 1945, in particular, produced many such novels. However, proletarian works were also produced before and after those dates. In Britain, the terms "working-class" literature, novel, etc., are more generally used.
A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is thesocial novel – also known as the "social-problem" or "social-protest" novel – a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".[44] More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation in cities.[45]
Charles Dickens was a fierce critic of the poverty andsocial stratification ofVictorian society.Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together".[46] On the other hand,George Orwell, in his essay on Dickens, wrote: "There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as 'human nature'."[47]
Dickens's second novel,Oliver Twist (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle-class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible.[48][49] Dickens'sHard Times (1854) is set in a smallMidlands industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect ofUtilitarianism on the lives of cities' working classes.John Ruskin declaredHard Times his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions.Walter Allen characterisedHard Times as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society",
Other notable examples are in the main lists, above.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)On Three Strong Women
