Book Review
THE CITIZEN’S VOICE: 20TH CENTURY POLITICS AND LITERATURE
by Michael Keren
University of Calgary Press, 173 pp.
Michael Keren, a political theorist at the University of Calgary, contends that the fictional characters in eight of the 20th century’s most significant political novels prescribe a model for political life that promotes the notion of civil society on a global scale.
Hans Castorp in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, Joseph K. in Franz Kafka’s The Trial, John the Savage in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984, Ralph in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Meursault in Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Ida Ramundo in Elsa Morante’s History and Chauncey Gardiner in Jerzy Kosinski’s Being There are all people struggling against ideological, technological or organizational constraints, and they are able to transcend them by the power of self-reflection.
In each of these novels, individuals attempt, successfully or not, to shield the private sphere from intrusion from often-pernicious collective forces. They reaffirm, Keren maintains, "the long neglected role of the citizen in public life to retain self-consciousness and thus serve as a barrier against absolute control by hegemonic forces in any given era." They all address major normative political questions, "maybe the most important ones raised in the 20th century," and so they serve, he suggests, as "building blocks of a model of the citizen."
Political scientists have tended to eschew works of fiction, preferring instead to concentrate on hard data and actual events when providing analysis of political behaviour.
In the past century, however, when truth has often been stranger – and more horrific – than fiction, those who contend that the truth-claims of factual genres are no longer tenable have questioned the traditional distinctions between reality and fantasy. If properly selected, works of fiction may provide insights into the cultural and social milieu that shapes the political process.
By demonstrating how the characters in these eight works of fiction communicate political messages in their search for civility, The Citizen’s Voice provides fresh and original insights regarding the place of the media in modern society, the notion of collective responsibility and other pertinent topics. Let us hope Keren is right when he asserts that recent announcements "of the death of the novel in the age of mass media may have been premature."
Well-written and free of unnecessary jargon, this book will be of interest to the well-educated general reader as well as the academic specialist.
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