Power and Class in Political Fiction: Elite Theory and the Post-War Washington Novel

ISBN-13: 9783030267711 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 188 str.

David Smit

Opis

This book introduces Elite Theory to the literary study of class as a framework for addressing issues of the nature of governance in political fiction.  The book describes the historical development and major tenets of Elite Theory, and shows how each of four post-war Washington novels—Gore Vidal’s Washington, D.C.; Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent; Joan Didion’s Democracy; and Ward Just’s Echo House—illustrates the way class-based political elites exhibit forms of “ruling-class consciousness” and maintain their legitimacy in an ostensibly democratic form of government by promoting themselves as models of behavior, promulgating an ideology that justifies their rule through their control of the media, and accepting new members from the lower classes. Reading these novels through a socio-political lens, David Smit offers suggestions for ways to work for a more just and equitable society in light of what this analysis reveals about the “culture” that produces our political elites.

Spis treści

CONTENTS

1. Chapter 1/Introduction

1.1 Chapter 1 The Political Novel

1.2 Chapter 1 The Washington Novel

1.3 Chapter 1 Elite Theory and Ruling Elites

 

1. Chapter 2/Class Consciousness in Late-Twentieth-Century America

2.1 Chapter 2 Post-War Working-Class Consciousness

2.2 Chapter 2 Post-War Ruling-Class Consciousness

 

Chapter 3/Elite Theory and the American Political Directorate

3.1 Chapter 3 A Brief History of Elite Theory

3.2 Chapter 3 Contemporary American Elite Theory

3.3 Chapter 3 Class and the Elite

3.4 Chapter 3 Power

 

1. Chapter 4/Gore Vidal’s Washington D. C.: Maintaining Legitimacy

 

1. Chapter 5/Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent: Moderate Ruling-Elite Ideology

 

1. Chapter 6/Joan Didion’s Democracy: Moderate Ruling-Elite Constituencies

 

1. Chapter 7/Ward Just’s Echo House: Implementing Policy/Accepting Others

 

1. Chapter 8/ Conclusion

8.1 Chapter 8 The Cultural Problem

8.2 Chapter 8 The Political Problem

O autorze

David Smit is Emeritus Professor of English at Kansas State University, USA, where he taught courses on Post-War American Literature and Culture, Henry James, and Expository Writing.  His previous books are The Language of a Master: Theories of Style and the Late Writing of Henry James (1988); The End of Composition Studies (2004); and Ingrid Bergman: The Life, Career, and Public Image (2012).