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Politics and Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

Maureen Whitebrook
Maureen Whitebrook*
Affiliation:
Trent Polytechnic, Great Britain
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Extract

The terms “politics” and “literature” are both “essentially-contestable“ concepts. “Politics” can mean political practice, political ideas or the study of politics; “literature” can mean the writing of books, the content of those books or the reading of them. “Politics and literature” is often taken to be synonymous with “political literature,” but different usages of “politics” and “literature” will produce other connections. Much of the work in “politics and literature” hitherto has been of a sociological nature. Less interest has been shown in the distinctively political aspects of the possible relationships between the study of politics — political thought in the widest sense — and the content of literature.

No methodology has yet been developed, in Literary Studies or Political Science, for the explication and understanding of these connections. The sociology of literature, however, provides terminology that may be useful in establishing such links.

Type
Research Article
Information
News for Teachers of Political Science , Volume 39 , Fall 1983 , pp. 12 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1983

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References

1 Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1951Google Scholar. “The Princess Casamassima”, p. 65.

2 Holland, H.M., Jr. (Ed.). Politics Through Literature. Englewood Cliffs N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Introduction, p. 2. See also, Castles, Frank, Politics and Social Insight. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971. Chapter , “On theory, evidence and insight.“

3 Wolin, Sheldon S. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1960. p. 19Google Scholar.

4 O'Brien, , Cruise, Conor & Vanech, William Dean, (Eds.). Power and Consiousness. New York: New York University Press, 1969Google Scholar. Conor Cruise O'Brien. “Imagination and Politics.” p. 211. Press, 1969. Conor Cruise O'Brien.” Imagination and Politics”, p. 211.

5 Freund, Paul A. “The Humanities and the Constitution.” Humanities, 1982, p. 3.

6 Miller, Arthur. The Crucible, A Play in Four Acts. London: The Cresset Press, 1956.

7 Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1974Google Scholar.

8 Ruff, Ivan, “Can There be a Sociology of Literature?” British Journal of Sociology 25, 1974, pp. 367CrossRefGoogle Scholar-72.

9 There has been a tendency, in some recent work in both English studies and education, to suggest that literature is elitist; the tone of much contemporary political science is antielitist. But while works of literature continue to form part of high school syllabi, and while opinion-makers — journalists, political commentators, and teachers, for example — continue to read literature for pleasure and recreation, literature must be regarded as a significant element in the (political) culture.

10 Schaar, John H. Legitimacy in the Modern State. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1981Google Scholar, 2. “The Uses of Literature for the Study of Politics: The Case of Melville's Benito Cereno”, p. 53-4.

11 Spegele, Roger D. “Fiction and Political Theory.” Social Register 38, 1971, pp. 108Google Scholar-38; see also Spegele. “Classic Liberalism and Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent”. Polity, 4(1), Fall 1971, pp. 5-24, ‘Fiction as political theory: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness'. British Journal of Political Science. 2, 1972, pp. 319-337.

12 See Zuckert, Catherine. “On Reading Classic American Novelists as Political Thinkers.” The Journal of Politics. 43, 1981, pp. 683–706CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for a comment on Spegele see especially pp. 689-90.

13 Bradbury, Malcolm, “Literature and Sociology”. In Humphreys, A.R. (Ed.), (Vol. 23) Essays and Studies, 1970. London: John Murray, 1970Google Scholar.

14 Spegele, “Fiction as political theory”. Op cit., p. 337.

15 “Zuckert, Catherine. “The Novel as a Form of American Political Thought.” Unpublished paper presented to the 1978 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, p. 23. (Quoted with the permission of the author).

16 Zeublin, Charles. English Fiction and Social Reform; Syllabus of a Course of Six Lecture-Studies. Chicago: The University Press of ChicagoGoogle Scholar; New York: D C Health, 1892; University of North Carolina. National Ideas in British and American Literature: A Syllabus Prepared by Members of the Department of English in the University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: published by the University, 1918; Hanford, J.H. …Our Heritage; A Study through Literature of the American Tradition, (new ed.) Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1927; Norman, Elizabeth, & Hedley, George. Great Books in Their Social Settings: Reading List and Chronology. (2nd ed.) Berkeley, California: Pacific Coast School for Workers, 1939; Black, Elinor. (Ed.) Suggested Reading List: Novels, Plays, Biographies, Poetry Dealing with Social and Economic Problems. New York: American Labor Education Service Inc., 1941; National Council for the Social Sciences. Bulletin No. 16. Howard E. Wilson et al.. Teaching the Civil Liberties: A Source Unit. Washington D.C.: NCSS, May 1941, (A Joint Project of the American Political Science Association and the National Council for the Social Sciences. Carlsen, G.R. & Aim, R.S., Social Understanding through Literature: A Bibliography for Secondary Schools Washington: National Council for the Social Studies, 1954.

17 Speare, Morris. The Political Novel: Its Development in England and America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924Google Scholar.

18 Howe, Irving. Politics and the Novel. London: Stevens, 1961Google Scholar.

19 Coser, Lewis A. Sociology Through Literature: An Introductory Reader. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1963Google Scholar.

20 Blotner, Joseph L. The Political Novel. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1955; The Modern American Political Novel 1900-1960. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966Google Scholar.

21 Compare, Davidson, F, James. ‘Political Science and Political Fiction'. American Political Science Review. 55, 1961, pp. 851-60Google Scholar. with Gottfried, Alex & Davidson, Sue. “Utopia's Children: An Interpretation of Three Political Novels.” Western Political Quarterly, 16, 1962. p. 17–32.Google Scholar

22 Holland, Politics Through Literature, op cit; Green, & Walzer, Michael. (Eds.) The Political Imagination in Literature: A Reader. New York: Free Press, 1969Google Scholar; Clowers, Myles, L. & Letendre, Lorin. Understanding American Politics Through Fiction. New York: McGraw Hill, 1973 (2nd ed. 1977)Google Scholar;Martin H. Greenberg, & Warrick, P.S., Political Science Fiction: An Introductory Reader. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974; Olander, Joseph D., et al, American Government Through Science Fiction. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974; Sperber, Murray, Literature and Politics. New Jersey: Hayden Book Co., 1979.

23 See, for example, Rogers, Chester B. “Science Fiction in the Political Science Classroom.“ Teaching Political Science 3, 1976, p. 404- ; Taylor, Stan A. “The Use of Fiction in an Introductory International Relations Class, or Getting There May be .50(.01) the Fun.“ Teaching Political Science, 4, 1977, pp. 307-318; Landers, Clifford E. “Science Fiction in the Political Science Classroom.” Teaching Political Science. 4, 1977, pp. 475-80; Neuse, Stephen. “Teaching Political Science with Chillers and Thrillers”. Teaching Political Science. 7, 1980, pp. 153-167; and compare, Lander, Clifford E. “Teaching Political Science Through Political Science Fiction.” Politics, 6, 1979, pp. 17-32.

24 Amy, Douglas Jay. “Literature and Political Knowledge: The Pedagogical Role of Fiction in Political Science”. Polit 1, 1977, pp. 91-108. Polit: a journal for literature and politics (Department of English, The University of Alabama, Birmingham and the Department of English, South Eastern Massachusetts University) only survived for this one issue. Douglas Amy's paper is a very good account of the reasons for making connections.

25 For example, in the session, “Literature and Politics in America”, organized by the Claremont Institute at the 1982 APSA meeting, the papers were: Engeman, Thomas, “Howells’ The Kentons: The Reality of a Virtuous American Community“; Richardson, William D. “Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson“; Umbanhowar, Charles E. “Escape from the Babbitt Warren“; Zuckert, Catherine, “Melville on the Sources of Meaning of Tragedy in Modern Democracy”.

26 See, for example, Kohn, Walter. “Theatre and politics”. Journal of Political Studies. 10, 1977, pp. 19-29: Sutherland, R.W., “Popular Accountability in the Illiadand the Odyssey.“ Review of Politics. 41, 1979, pp. 501-12; Joel Kassiola, “Literature and Politics: The Importance of Virtual Experience”. Illinois Quarterly. 43, 1980, pp. 40-48; Zuckert, Catherine. “The Political Thought of Nathaniel Hawthorne”. Polity. 12, 1980; Alvis, John, & West, Thomas G. Shakespeare as Political Thinker. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1981; Euben, Peter J. “Justice and the Oresteia”. American Political Science Review. 76, 1982, pp. 22-32; Barber, Benjamin R. & McGrath, Michael J. Gargas. (Eds.) The Artist and Political Vision New Brunswich: Transaction Books, 1982.

27 For public administration, see Egger, Rowland. “The Administrative novel”. The American Political Science Review. 53, 1959, pp. 448–455CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Waldo, Dwight. The Novelist on Organization and Administration: An Enquiry into the Relationship Between Two Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968Google Scholar; McDaniel, Thomas R. “The Search for the 'Administrative Novel'.” Public Administration Review, November-December 1978, pp. 545-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCurdy, Howard E. “Fiction, Phenomenology and Public Administration”. Public Administration Review, 33, 1973, pp. 52–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A separate investigation could be made of the work in this field, and in International Relations, which utilizes literature. For work in law and literature see. Allen, Smith J.. “The Coming Renaissance in Law and Literature.” University of Maryland Law Forum. 7, 1977, pp. 84–92Google Scholar; and c.f. the work of George Anastopolo. There are other areas of ‘politics’ which I have not included for reasons of time and funding in this survey. Black studies, women studies and possibly, Hispanic studies, rely heavily on literature as primary source material. A full survey of the work in politics and literature would need to include these areas.

28 This comment and all the unattributed comments that follow, come from communications to me during the course of my enquiries; they are all from American academics engaged in teaching politics and literature.

29 The only attempt, to my knowledge, to “test” the transfer of understanding from literature to politics was carried out by Steven Brown. See Brown, Steven. “Political Literature and the Response of the Reader: Experimental Studies of Interpretation, Imagery and Criticism”, American Political Science Review. 71, 1977, pp. 567–584CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is not clear how applicable Brown's method would be to much of the work in politics and literature.

30 von der Muhl, George. “The Evolution of ‘Literature and Politics’ ”. Unpublished (quoted with perrmission of the author).

31 Introduction, The Artist and Political Vision, op cit.