Politics and the Novel

Undergraduate / Graduate

As a form, the novel seems ill-suited to political messaging. The very act of reading a novel stagnates political action insofar as it demands isolation and a retreat from collective life. Then there are the pitfalls of misinterpretation. Conventionally, novels include a variety of characters with differing perspectives: how to ensure that the reader understands which is the right one? Finally, how can a novel, after it has enabled its readers to withdraw into a fictional world, successfully motivate them to get up and intervene in society? Yet despite these challenges, the novel has also been the chosen genre for many writers, both reactionary and revolutionary, who aim to convince the public of their cause. In this course, we will read political novels and their theories from the twentieth century to today, paying special attention to how writers adapt narrative forms to try to control the inherent ambiguity of literary discourse. Readings will include theoretical texts by Benjamin, Lukács, Sartre, Adorno, Jameson, and Rancière; novels by Seghers, Grass, and Houellebecq, among others.