Political fiction  

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-'''Political fiction''' is a [[subgenre]] of [[fiction]] that deals with [[political affairs]]. Political fiction has often used [[narrative]] to provide [[Political commentary|commentary]] on [[political]] events, systems and theories.  
-Prominent pieces of political fiction have included the [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] [[dystopia]]s of the early 20th century such as Jack London's ''[[The Iron Heel]]'' and Sinclair Lewis's ''[[It Can't Happen Here]]''. Equally influential, if not more so, however, have been earlier pieces of political fiction such as ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726), ''[[Candide]]'' (1759) and ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852). Political fiction frequently employs the literary modes of [[satire]], often in the genres of [[Utopian and dystopian fiction]] or [[social science fiction]].+'''Political fiction''' employs [[narrative]] to [[Political commentary|comment]] on [[political]] events, systems and theories. Works of political [[fiction]], such as '''political novels''', often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality".<ref>"[http://www.wesleyan.edu/wesmaps/course0102/hist294s.htm "HIST 294 - Political Fiction"], Wesleyan University, accessed 12 December 2005 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060916105750/http://www.wesleyan.edu/wesmaps/course0102/hist294s.htm |date=September 16, 2006 }}</ref> The political novel overlaps with the [[social novel]], [[proletarian novel]], and [[social science fiction]].
-==Notable Examples==+[[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', a [[Socratic dialogue]] written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of [[philosophy]] and [[Political philosophy|political theory]], both intellectually and historically.<ref>National Public Radio (August 8, 2007). [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12594668 Plato's 'Republic' Still Influential, Author Says]. Talk of the Nation.</ref><ref>[http://www.allphilosophers.com/ Plato: The Republic]. Plato: His Philosophy and his life, allphilosophers.com</ref> The ''Republic'' is concerned with [[justice]] ([[:Wiktionary:δικαιοσύνη|δικαιοσύνη]]), the order and character of the just [[city-state]], and the just man.<ref>Brickhouse, Thomas and Smith, Nicholas D. [http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/plato.htm Plato (c. 427–347 BC)], The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, cf. ''Dating Plato's Dialogues''.</ref> Other influential politically-themed works include [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]'' (1516), [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726), [[Voltaire]]'s ''[[Candide]]'' (1759), and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852).
 + 
 +Political fiction frequently employs [[satire]], often in the [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|utopian and dystopian]] genres.
 +This includes [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] [[dystopia]]s of the early 20th century such as [[Jack London]]'s ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', [[Sinclair Lewis]]' ''[[It Can't Happen Here]]'', and [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.
 + 
 +==Political satire==
 +The [[Greek comedy|Greek playwright]] [[Aristophanes]]' plays are known for their political and social satire,<ref name="Sutton, D. F. 1993 p.56">{{Citation | last = Sutton | first = DF | title = Ancient Comedy: The War of the Generations | place = New York | year = 1993 | page = 56}}</ref> particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general, [[Cleon]], in plays such as ''[[The Knights]]''. Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent.<ref name="Sutton, D. F. 1993 p.56" /><ref>{{Citation | chapter-url = http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/aristophanes003.html | chapter = Political and social satires of Aristophanes | editor-first = Alfred | editor-last = Bates | title = The Drama, Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization | volume = 2 | place = London | publisher = Historical Publishing | year = 1906 | pages = 55–59}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | first = JE | last = Atkinson | jstor = 639144 | title = Curbing the Comedians: Cleon versus Aristophanes and Syracosius' Decree | journal = The Classical Quarterly | series = New | volume = 42 | number = 1 | year = 1992 | pages = 56–64 | doi=10.1017/s0009838800042580}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0714-06.htm | title = Aristophanes: the Michael Moore of his Day | first = John Louis | last = Anderson | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061019054115/http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0714-06.htm | archive-date = 2006-10-19 }}</ref> Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease.{{Sfn | Wilson | 2002 | p = 17}} His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian [[Menander]], whose early play, ''Drunkenness'', contains an attack on the politician, [[Callimedon]].
 + 
 +[[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'' (1729) is an 18th-century [[Juvenal]]ian [[Satire|satirical]] [[essay]] 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 satirical [[hyperbole]] mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] policy toward the [[Irish people|Irish]] in general.
 + 
 +[[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'' (1945) is an [[allegory|allegorical]] and [[dystopian novel|dystopian]] novella which satirises the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] and the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)|Stalinist era]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/george-orwells-animal-farm-historical-context-pt-1-3/8177.html|title=BBC - GCSE English Literature - 'Animal Farm' - historical context (pt 1/3)|work=bbc.co.uk}}</ref> Orwell, a [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]],<ref>Orwell, George. "[[Why I Write]]" (1936) (''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 1 – An Age Like This 1945–1950'' p.&nbsp;23 (Penguin))</ref> was a critic of [[Joseph Stalin]] and was hostile to Moscow-directed [[Stalinism]]—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>[[Gordon Bowker (writer)|Gordon Bowker]], ''Orwell'' p.&nbsp;224 ; Orwell, writing in his review of [[Franz Borkenau]]'s ''[[The Spanish Cockpit]]'' in ''[[Time and Tide (magazine)|Time and Tide]]'', 31 July 1937, and "Spilling the Spanish Beans", ''New English Weekly'', 29 July 1937</ref> The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal [[dictatorship]], built upon a [[cult of personality]] and enforced by [[Great purge|a reign of terror]]. Orwell described his ''Animal Farm'' as "a [[satire|satirical]] tale against Stalin",{{sfn|Davison|2000|p=}} and in his essay "[[Why I Write]]" (1946) he wrote that ''Animal 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, is ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such as ''[[Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]]'', ''[[doublethink]]'', ''[[thoughtcrime]]'', ''[[Newspeak]]'', ''[[Room 101]]'', ''[[telescreen]]'', ''[[2 + 2 = 5]]'', and ''[[memory 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 a [[totalitarian]] or [[authoritarian]] state.<ref name="English Literature 2000. p. 726">The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Sixth Edition. University of Oxford Press: 2000. p. 726.</ref>
 + 
 +==16th century==
 +The poet [[Jan Kochanowski]]'s play, ''[[Jan Kochanowski#Works|The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys]]'' (1578), the first [[tragedy]] written in the [[Polish language]], recounts an incident leading up to the [[Trojan War]]. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day.<ref>[[Stefan Kieniewicz]], ed., ''Warszawa w latach 1526–1795'' (Warsaw in the Years 1526–1795), vol. II, Warsaw, 1984, {{ISBN|83-01-03323-1}}, pp. 157–58.</ref>
 + 
 +==18th century==
 +The political [[comedy]], ''The Return of the Deputy'' (1790), by [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]]—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms of [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]]—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historic [[Four-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 epochal [[Constitution of May 3, 1791|Constitution of 3 May 1791]], which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after the [[United States Constitution]] implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizing [[Royal elections in Poland|free election]] of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructive ''[[liberum veto]]''; of granting greater rights to [[peasant]]s and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interested [[szlachta|noble 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 the [[Polish–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.<ref>[[:pl:Zdzisław Skwarczyński|Zdzisław Skwarczyński]], ''wstęp'' (introduction) to [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]], ''[[:pl:Powrót posła|Powrót posła]]'' (The Return of the Deputy), Wrocław, [[Ossolineum]], 1983.</ref>
 + 
 +==19th-century novel==
 +An early example of the political novel is ''[[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|The Betrothed]]'' (1827) by [[Alessandro Manzoni]], an Italian [[historical 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 the [[Austrian Empire]], which controlled [[Italy]] at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language.<ref name="Archibald Colquhoun 1954">Archibald Colquhoun. ''Manzoni and his Times.'' J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1954.</ref>
 + 
 +In the 1840s British politician [[Benjamin Disraeli]] wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With ''[[Coningsby (novel)|Coningsby; or, The New Generation]]'' (1844), Disraeli, in historian [[Robert Blake, Baron Blake|Robert 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."<ref name=gale>[http://www.enotes.com/benjamin-disraeli-essays/disraeli-benjamin "Benjamin Disraeli 1804–1881"], '' Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism'', eNotes, accessed 25 August 2013</ref> ''Coningsby'' was followed by ''[[Sybil (novel)|Sybil; or, The Two Nations]]'' (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than ''Coningsby''; 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 (novel)|Tancred; or, The New Crusade]]'' (1847), promoted the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality.<ref name=gale/>
 + 
 +[[Ivan Turgenev]] wrote ''[[Fathers and Sons (novel)|Fathers and Sons]]'' (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between [[Russia]]'s liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russian [[nihilist 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 the [[Slavophile]]s, who believed that Russia's path lay in its [[Russian Orthodox Church|traditional spirituality]]. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "[[Nihilist movement|nihilism]]", which became widely used after the novel was published.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nihilismus|url=http://www.iwp.jku.at/born/mpwfst/05/0510_Nihilismus.pdf|publisher=Johannes Kepler University|access-date=24 September 2013}}</ref>
 +
 +The Polish writer [[Bolesław Prus]]' novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (1895), is set in the Egypt of 1087&ndash;85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its [[Twentieth Dynasty]] and [[New Kingdom]]. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge [[The powers that be (phrase)|the powers that be]] are vulnerable to co-option, [[seduction]], subornation, [[defamation]], intimidation, and [[assassination]]. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of [[knowledge]]. 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 the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in 1795, a century before he completed ''Pharaoh''. 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 20 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish [[Pharaoh (film)|feature film]].<ref>[[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XXXI, nos. 2-3, 1986, p.&nbsp;129.</ref> It is also known to have been [[Joseph Stalin|Joseph Stalin's]] favourite book.<ref>[[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation", p.&nbsp;128.</ref>
 + 
 +==20th-century novel==
 +[[Joseph Conrad]] wrote several novels with political themes: ''[[Nostromo]] (1904)'', ''[[The Secret Agent]]'' (1907), and
 +''[[Under Western Eyes (novel)|Under Western Eyes]]'' (1911). ''Nostromo'' (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitious [[South America]]n country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel's [[eponym]]ous "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.<ref>[[Joseph Conrad]], ''[[Nostromo]]'', 1904.</ref> The role of politics is paramount in ''The Secret Agent'', as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroy [[Greenwich 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."<ref name="anarchist">{{Citation | first = Joseph | last = Conrad | year = 1993 | title = The Secret Agent | place = London | publisher = Penguin | page = 35}}.</ref> 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 (novel)|Under Western Eyes]]'', is connected to Russian history. Its first audience read it against the backdrop of the failed [[Revolution of 1905]] and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as the [[Russian Revolution|revolutions of 1917]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Conrad: The Critical Heritage |url=https://archive.org/details/conradcriticalhe0000sher |url-access=registration |editor=Norman Sherry |location=London |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |year=1973 |page=[https://archive.org/details/conradcriticalhe0000sher/page/234 234]}}</ref> Conrad's earlier novella, ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of European [[colonialism|colonial]] depredations in [[Africa]], which Conrad witnessed during his employ in the [[Congo Free State|Belgian Congo]].<ref>''The Norton Anthology'', 7th edition, 2000, p. 1957.</ref>
 + 
 +[[John Steinbeck]]'s novel ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as a [[propaganda|propagandist]] and a [[Socialism|socialist]] 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'".<ref name=cordyack>{{cite web
 + | last = Cordyack
 + | first = Brian
 + | title = 20th-Century American Bestsellers: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
 + | publisher = Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
 + | url = http://unsworth.unet.brandeis.edu/courses/bestsellers/?title=the+grapes+of+wrath
 + | access-date =February 18, 2007}}</ref> Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,643450,00.html
 + |title=Of Men and Their Making: The Non-Fiction Of John Steinbeck
 + |publisher=Penguin
 + |last1= Shillinglaw
 + |first1=Susan
 + |last2= Benson
 + |first2=Jackson J
 + |access-date=December 17, 2008
 +| location=London
 +| date=February 2, 2002
 + }}</ref> and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit.
 + 
 +''[[The Quiet American]]'' (1955) by English novelist [[Graham 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 by [[American exceptionalism]] that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for ''[[The Times]]'' and ''[[Le Figaro]]'' in [[French Indochina]] in 1951–54.<ref>Andrew J. Bacevich, "Best Intentions: An Appreciation of Graham Greene". World Affairs [http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/best-intentions-appreciation-graham-greene]</ref>
 + 
 +''[[The Gay Place]]'' (1961) is a set of politically-themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American author [[Billy 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 mentor [[Lyndon Johnson]]<ref name="cf">
 +{{cite web
 +| first = Charlie
 +| last = Finch
 +| title = The Gay Place
 +| date = February 8, 2011
 +| publisher = [[artnet]]
 +| url = http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/william-brammer-the-gay-place-2-8-11.asp
 +| access-date = July 12, 2012
 +}}
 +</ref>) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine,<ref name="as">
 +{{cite news
 +| last = Salamon
 +| first = Jeff
 +| date = March 29, 2009
 +| title = Nadine Eckhardt makes her own 'Gay Place'
 +| newspaper = [[Austin American-Statesman]]
 +| url = http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/books/03/29/0329eckhardt.html
 +| access-date = July 14, 2012
 +}}
 +</ref>
 +Johnson's wife [[Lady Bird Johnson|Ladybird]], and his brother [[Sam Houston Johnson]].<ref name="cf" /> The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written.<ref name="lehmann">
 +{{cite journal
 +| last = Lehmann
 +| first = Christopher
 +| title = Why Americans can't write political fiction
 +| date = October–November 2005
 +| journal = [[Washington Monthly]]
 +| url = http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.lehmann.html
 +| access-date = July 24, 2012
 +}}
 +</ref><ref name="tm">
 +{{cite journal
 +| last = Reinert
 +| first = Al
 +| author-link = Al Reinert
 +| title = Billy Lee
 +| date = February 1979
 +| journal = [[Texas Monthly]]
 +| url = http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/billy-lee
 +| access-date = July 11, 2012
 +}}
 +</ref><ref name="tm2">
 +{{cite journal
 +| last = Reed
 +| first = Jan
 +| title = Return to The Gay Place
 +| date = March 2001
 +| journal = [[Texas Monthly]]
 +| url = http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/return-gay-place
 +| access-date = July 14, 2012
 +}}
 +</ref>
 + 
 +== 21st Century Novels ==
 +Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlantic [[migrant 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Perisic, Alexandra|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1096294244|title=Precarious crossings : immigration, neoliberalism, and the Atlantic|year=2019|isbn=978-0-8142-1410-7|location=Columbus|oclc=1096294244}}</ref> Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems.<ref name=":0" /> [[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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-10-04|title=Senegalese Migrant Novelist Fatou Diome Is Now the Militant Marianne by Rosemary Haskell|url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/cultural-cross-sections/senegalese-migrant-novelist-fatou-diome-now-militant-marianne-rosemary|access-date=2020-10-14|website=World Literature Today|language=en}}</ref> The work of Guadeloupean author [[Maryse Condé]] also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles are ''Ségou'' (1984) and ''Ségou 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).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bruner|first=David K.|date=1977|title=Maryse Condé: Creative Writer in a Political World|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26280515|journal=L'Esprit Créateur|volume=17|issue=2|pages=168–173|jstor=26280515|issn=0014-0767}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maryse Conde {{!}} Biography, Books, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maryse-Conde|access-date=2020-10-14|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> A bold critic of the presidency of [[Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy|Nicolas Sarkozy]], French novelist [[Marie NDiaye|Marie Ndiayes]] won the [[Prix Goncourt]] for "[[Three Strong Women]]"(2009) about patriarchal control.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Eberstadt|first=Fernanda|date=2012-08-10|title=Hopes Spring Eternal (Published 2012)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/books/review/three-strong-women-by-marie-ndiaye.html|access-date=2020-10-14|issn=0362-4331|quote=On Three Strong Women}}</ref>
 + 
 +==Proletarian novel==
 +The [[proletarian novel]] is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel,<ref>H. Gustav Klaus, ''The Socialist Novel in Britain: Towards the Recovery of a Tradition''. ( Brighton: Harvester Press, 1982, p. 1.</ref> socialist novel,<ref>H. Gustav Klaus.</ref> [[social problem novel|social-problem novel]] (also problem novel, sociological novel, or [[social novel]]),<ref>''A Handbook to Literature'' 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996), p.487; "social problem novel." ''Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/664323/social-problem-novel]</ref> propaganda or thesis novel,<ref>J. A. Cuddon (revised C. E. Preston), ''The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory''. (London: Penguin, 1999), pp. 704, 913</ref> and [[socialist realism|socialist-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 may [[Political commentary|comment]] on [[political]] 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 by [[communist]], [[socialist]], and [[anarchist]] 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|working-class]]" literature, novel, etc., are more generally used.
 + 
 +==Social novel==
 +A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is the [[social 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".<ref>"social problem novel" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/664323/social-problem-novel].</ref> 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.<ref>"Childers, JW (2001)"</ref>
 + 
 +[[Charles Dickens]] was a fierce critic of the poverty and [[social stratification]] of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] 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".<ref name="KucichSadoff">{{harvnb|Kucich|Sadoff|2006|p=155}}.</ref> 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'."<ref>{{cite web|last=Eliot|first=George|title=Charles Dickens|url=http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd}}</ref>
 + 
 +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.<ref>{{harvnb|Raina|1986|p=25}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bodenheimer|2011|p=147}}.</ref> [[Charles Dickens]]'s [[Hard Times (novel)|''Hard Times'']] (1854) is set in a small [[Midlands (England)|Midlands]] industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect of [[Utilitarianism]] on the lives of cities' working classes. [[John Ruskin]] declared ''Hard Times'' his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. [[Walter Allen]] characterised ''Hard Times'' as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society",
 + 
 +==Notable examples==
''This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list'' ''This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list''
 +{{Main|Politics in fiction}}
-*''[[Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' (ca. 360 [[BCE]]) by [[Plato]] 
*''[[Panchatantra]]'' (ca. 200 [[BCE]]) by [[Vishnu Sarma]] *''[[Panchatantra]]'' (ca. 200 [[BCE]]) by [[Vishnu Sarma]]
-*''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]'' (1516) by [[Thomas More]] 
-*''[[The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys]]'' (1578) by [[Jan Kochanowski]] 
*''[[Don Quixote]]'' (1605) by [[Miguel de Cervantes]] *''[[Don Quixote]]'' (1605) by [[Miguel de Cervantes]]
*''[[Simplicius Simplicissimus]]'' (1668) by [[Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen]] *''[[Simplicius Simplicissimus]]'' (1668) by [[Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen]]
*''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' (1678) by [[John Bunyan]] *''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' (1678) by [[John Bunyan]]
*''[[Persian Letters]]'' (1721) by [[Montesquieu]] *''[[Persian Letters]]'' (1721) by [[Montesquieu]]
-*''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726) by [[Jonathan Swift]] 
-*''[[Candide]]'' (1759) by [[Voltaire]] 
*''[[The History and Adventures of an Atom]]'' (1769) by [[Tobias Smollett]] *''[[The History and Adventures of an Atom]]'' (1769) by [[Tobias Smollett]]
*''[[Fables and Parables]]'' (1779) by [[Ignacy Krasicki]] *''[[Fables and Parables]]'' (1779) by [[Ignacy Krasicki]]
-*''[[The Return of the Deputy]]'' (1790) by [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]] 
*''[[The Partisan Leader]]'' (1836) by [[Nathaniel Beverley Tucker]] *''[[The Partisan Leader]]'' (1836) by [[Nathaniel Beverley Tucker]]
*''[[Barnaby Rudge]]'' (1841) by [[Charles Dickens]] *''[[Barnaby Rudge]]'' (1841) by [[Charles Dickens]]
-*''[[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|The Betrothed]]'' (1842) by [[Alessandro Manzoni]] 
-*''[[Coningsby (novel)]]'' (1844) by [[Benjamin Disraeli]] 
-*''[[Sybil, or The Two Nations]]'' (1845) by [[Benjamin Disraeli]] 
-*''[[Tancred (novel)|Tancred]]'' (1847) by [[Benjamin Disraeli]] 
-*''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852) by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] 
*''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' (1859) by [[Charles Dickens]] *''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' (1859) by [[Charles Dickens]]
-*''[[Fathers and Sons (novel)|Fathers and Sons]]'' (1862) by [[Ivan Turgenev]] 
*''[[Palliser novels|The Palliser novels]]'' (1864–1879) by [[Anthony Trollope]] *''[[Palliser novels|The Palliser novels]]'' (1864–1879) by [[Anthony Trollope]]
*''[[War and Peace]]'' (1869) by [[Leo Tolstoy]] *''[[War and Peace]]'' (1869) by [[Leo Tolstoy]]
-*''[[Demons]]'', also known as ''The Possessed'' or ''The Devils'' (1872), by [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]]+*''[[Demons (Dostoyevsky novel)|Demons]]'', also known as ''The Possessed'' or ''The Devils'' (1872), by [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]]
*''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today|The Gilded Age]]'' (1876) by [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]] *''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today|The Gilded Age]]'' (1876) by [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]]
*''[[Democracy: An American Novel]]'' (1880) by [[Henry Brooks Adams|Henry Adams]] *''[[Democracy: An American Novel]]'' (1880) by [[Henry Brooks Adams|Henry Adams]]
*''[[The Princess Casamassima]]'' (1886) by [[Henry James]] *''[[The Princess Casamassima]]'' (1886) by [[Henry James]]
*''[[The Bostonians]]'' (1886) by Henry James *''[[The Bostonians]]'' (1886) by Henry James
-*''[[Looking Backward]]'' (1888) by [[Edward Bellamy]]+*''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'' (1899) by [[Leo Tolstoy]]
-*''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (1895) by [[Bolesław Prus]]+*''[[NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages]]'' (1900) Jack Adams
-*''[[Nostromo]]'' (1904) by [[Joseph Conrad]]+*''[[The Old New Land]]'' (1902) by [[Theodor Herzl]]
*''[[The Jungle]]'' (1906) by [[Upton Sinclair]] *''[[The Jungle]]'' (1906) by [[Upton Sinclair]]
-*''[[The Iron Heel]]'' (1908) by [[Jack London]] 
-*''[[Under Western Eyes]]'' (1911) by [[Joseph Conrad]] 
*''[[The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists]]'' (1914) by [[Robert Tressell]] *''[[The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists]]'' (1914) by [[Robert Tressell]]
*''[[The Trial]]'' (1925) by [[Franz Kafka]] *''[[The Trial]]'' (1925) by [[Franz Kafka]]
*''[[The Castle (novel)|The Castle]]'' (1926) by [[Franz Kafka]] *''[[The Castle (novel)|The Castle]]'' (1926) by [[Franz Kafka]]
-*''[[Brave New World]]'' (1932) by [[Aldous Huxley]]+*''[[The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma]]'' (1932) by [[Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz]]
-*''[[Animal Farm|Animal Farm: A Fairy Story]]'' (1945) by [[George Orwell]]+
*''[[Walden Two]]'' (1948) by [[B. F. Skinner]] *''[[Walden Two]]'' (1948) by [[B. F. Skinner]]
-*''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949) by [[George Orwell]] 
*''[[Dark Green, Bright Red]]'' (1950) by [[Gore Vidal]] *''[[Dark Green, Bright Red]]'' (1950) by [[Gore Vidal]]
-*''[[The Quiet American]]'' (1955) by [[Graham Greene]] 
*''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' (1957) by [[Ayn Rand]] *''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' (1957) by [[Ayn Rand]]
*''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'' (1959) by [[Richard Condon]] *''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'' (1959) by [[Richard Condon]]
Line 63: Line 168:
*''[[The Chocolate War]]'' (1974) by [[Robert Cormier]] *''[[The Chocolate War]]'' (1974) by [[Robert Cormier]]
*''[[Guerrillas (novel)|Guerrillas]]'' (1975) by [[V. S. Naipaul]] *''[[Guerrillas (novel)|Guerrillas]]'' (1975) by [[V. S. Naipaul]]
 +*''[[Ragtime (novel)|Ragtime]]'' (1975) by [[E.L. Doctorow]]
*''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976) by [[Gore Vidal]] *''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' (1976) by [[Gore Vidal]]
*''[[Vineland]]'' (1990) by [[Thomas Pynchon]] *''[[Vineland]]'' (1990) by [[Thomas Pynchon]]
-*''United States of Banana (2011) by [[Giannina Braschi]]+*''[[From the Fatherland With Love|From the Fatherland with Love]]'' (2005) by [[Ryu Murakami]]
 +*''[[The Polity of Beasts]]'' (2007) by [[Renald Iacovelli]]
 +*''Occupied'' (2015); ''The Little Voice'' (2016); ''Money Power Love'' (2017) by [[Joss Sheldon]]
-==Science fiction==+===Science fiction===
* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' (1959) by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] * ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' (1959) by [[Robert A. Heinlein]]
 +*''[[Brave New World]]'' (1932) by [[Aldous Huxley]]
* ''[[The Dispossessed|The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]'' (1974) by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] * ''[[The Dispossessed|The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]'' (1974) by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]
* The ''[[Mars trilogy]]'' (1990s) by [[Kim Stanley Robinson]] * The ''[[Mars trilogy]]'' (1990s) by [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]
==See also== ==See also==
-*[[Politics in fiction]]+*[[Augustan literature]]
 +*[[Political cartoon]]
*[[Political satire]] *[[Political satire]]
 +*[[Politics in fiction]]
 +*[[Political poetry]]
 +*[[Proletarian literature]]
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 09:34, 24 August 2021

"Legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defence of ancient law were of use to their cause." -- Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment

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Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality".<ref>""HIST 294 - Political Fiction", Wesleyan University, accessed 12 December 2005 Template:Webarchive</ref> The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction.

Plato's Republic, a Socratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically.<ref>National Public Radio (August 8, 2007). Plato's 'Republic' Still Influential, Author Says. Talk of the Nation.</ref><ref>Plato: The Republic. Plato: His Philosophy and his life, allphilosophers.com</ref> The Republic is concerned with justice (δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man.<ref>Brickhouse, Thomas and Smith, Nicholas D. Plato (c. 427–347 BC), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, cf. Dating Plato's Dialogues.</ref> Other influential politically-themed works include Thomas More's Utopia (1516), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Voltaire's Candide (1759), and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).

Political fiction frequently employs satire, often in the utopian and dystopian genres. This includes totalitarian dystopias of the early 20th century such as Jack London's The Iron Heel, Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Contents

Political satire

The Greek playwright Aristophanes' plays are known for their political and social satire,<ref name="Sutton, D. F. 1993 p.56">Template:Citation</ref> particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general, Cleon, in plays such as The Knights. Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent.<ref name="Sutton, D. F. 1993 p.56" /><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease.Template:Sfn His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander, whose early play, Drunkenness, contains an attack on the politician, Callimedon.

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729) is an 18th-century Juvenalian satirical essay 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 satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general.

George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) is an allegorical and dystopian novella which satirises the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet Union's Stalinist era.<ref>{{

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}}</ref> Orwell, a democratic socialist,<ref>Orwell, George. "Why I Write" (1936) (The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 1 – An Age Like This 1945–1950 p. 23 (Penguin))</ref> was a critic of Joseph Stalin and was hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.<ref>Gordon Bowker, Orwell p. 224 ; Orwell, writing in his review of Franz Borkenau's The Spanish Cockpit in Time and Tide, 31 July 1937, and "Spilling the Spanish Beans", New English Weekly, 29 July 1937</ref> The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. Orwell described his Animal Farm as "a satirical tale against Stalin",Template:Sfn and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) he wrote that Animal 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, is Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, and memory 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 a totalitarian or authoritarian state.<ref name="English Literature 2000. p. 726">The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Sixth Edition. University of Oxford Press: 2000. p. 726.</ref>

16th century

The poet Jan Kochanowski's play, The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578), the first tragedy written in the Polish language, recounts an incident leading up to the Trojan War. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day.<ref>Stefan Kieniewicz, ed., Warszawa w latach 1526–1795 (Warsaw in the Years 1526–1795), vol. II, Warsaw, 1984, Template:ISBN, pp. 157–58.</ref>

18th century

The political comedy, The Return of the Deputy (1790), by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms of Tadeusz Kościuszko—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historic Four-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 epochal Constitution of 3 May 1791, which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after the United States Constitution implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizing free election of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructive liberum veto; of granting greater rights to peasants and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interested noble 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 the Polish–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.<ref>Zdzisław Skwarczyński, wstęp (introduction) to Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Powrót posła (The Return of the Deputy), Wrocław, Ossolineum, 1983.</ref>

19th-century novel

An early example of the political novel is The Betrothed (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian historical 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 the Austrian Empire, which controlled Italy at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language.<ref name="Archibald Colquhoun 1954">Archibald Colquhoun. Manzoni and his Times. J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1954.</ref>

In the 1840s British politician Benjamin Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With Coningsby; or, The New Generation (1844), Disraeli, in historian Robert 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."<ref name=gale>"Benjamin Disraeli 1804–1881", Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, eNotes, accessed 25 August 2013</ref> Coningsby was followed by Sybil; or, The Two Nations (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than Coningsby; 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.<ref name=gale/>

Ivan Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between Russia's liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russian nihilist 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 the Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "nihilism", which became widely used after the novel was published.<ref>{{

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The Polish writer Bolesław 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 its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation, and assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge. 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 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before he completed Pharaoh. 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 20 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film.<ref>Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh and Curtin's Translation", The Polish Review, vol. XXXI, nos. 2-3, 1986, p. 129.</ref> It is also known to have been Joseph Stalin's favourite book.<ref>Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh and Curtin's Translation", p. 128.</ref>

20th-century novel

Joseph Conrad wrote several novels with political themes: Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), and Under Western Eyes (1911). Nostromo (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel's eponymous "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.<ref>Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, 1904.</ref> The role of politics is paramount in The Secret Agent, as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroy Greenwich 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."<ref name="anarchist">Template:Citation.</ref> 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 failed Revolution of 1905 and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as the revolutions of 1917.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Conrad's earlier novella, Heart of Darkness (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of European colonial depredations in Africa, which Conrad witnessed during his employ in the Belgian Congo.<ref>The Norton Anthology, 7th edition, 2000, p. 1957.</ref>

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist 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'".<ref name=cordyack>{{

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}}</ref> Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit.

The Quiet American (1955) by English novelist Graham 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 by American exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina in 1951–54.<ref>Andrew J. Bacevich, "Best Intentions: An Appreciation of Graham Greene". World Affairs [1]</ref>

The Gay Place (1961) is a set of politically-themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American author Billy 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 mentor Lyndon Johnson<ref name="cf"> {{

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}} </ref>) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine,<ref name="as"> Template:Cite news </ref> Johnson's wife Ladybird, and his brother Sam Houston Johnson.<ref name="cf" /> The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written.<ref name="lehmann"> Template:Cite journal </ref><ref name="tm"> Template:Cite journal </ref><ref name="tm2"> Template:Cite journal </ref>

21st Century Novels

Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlantic migrant 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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{

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}}</ref> The work of Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles are Ségou (1984) and Ségou 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).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{

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}}</ref> A bold critic of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, French novelist Marie Ndiayes won the Prix Goncourt for "Three Strong Women"(2009) about patriarchal control.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Proletarian novel

The proletarian novel is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel,<ref>H. Gustav Klaus, The Socialist Novel in Britain: Towards the Recovery of a Tradition. ( Brighton: Harvester Press, 1982, p. 1.</ref> socialist novel,<ref>H. Gustav Klaus.</ref> social-problem novel (also problem novel, sociological novel, or social novel),<ref>A Handbook to Literature 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996), p.487; "social problem novel." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. [2]</ref> propaganda or thesis novel,<ref>J. A. Cuddon (revised C. E. Preston), The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. (London: Penguin, 1999), pp. 704, 913</ref> and socialist-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 may comment on political 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 by communist, socialist, and anarchist 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.

Social novel

A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is the social 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".<ref>"social problem novel" in Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. [3].</ref> 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.<ref>"Childers, JW (2001)"</ref>

Charles Dickens was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian 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".<ref name="KucichSadoff">Template:Harvnb.</ref> 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'."<ref>{{

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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.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854) is set in a small Midlands industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect of Utilitarianism on the lives of cities' working classes. John Ruskin declared Hard Times his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. Walter Allen characterised Hard Times as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society",

Notable examples

This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list

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Science fiction

See also


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Political fiction" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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