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1 results

  • Chapter 4 - Socialism and Communism

  • from Part I - Ideologies and Movements
  • Edited by Bryan M. Santin, Concordia University Irvine
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics
    Published online:
    07 October 2023
    Print publication:
    12 October 2023, pp 62-77

  • Summary

    This chapter examines the literary left over the course of the twentieth century. Beginning with an analysis of key nineteenth-century literary antecedents to later socialist and communist novels, it then focuses on early twentieth-century leftist novels drawn from realism, naturalism, and utopian socialism. The chapter pays special attention to influential fictional works by Upton Sinclair, notably The Jungle, and the many subsequent leftist novels spawned by Sinclair’s success. It surveys unique contributions to the literary left made by Black novelists such as Claude McKay and Richard Wright and by feminist writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin. The chapter ends with a brief analysis of post-1960s leftist writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson, who harnessed science fiction for revolutionary ends.