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What are the possibilities of connection between politics and literature? How have those possibilities been developed? Why should students of politics turn to literature as a source of political understanding? Connections have traditionally been made in terms of literature as illustration or example for politics or as a form of moral education. Other possibilities are a 'political sociology of literature' or literature as a primary source for political studies. Work in the United States suggests further extensions. The case for 'politics and literature' is also strengthened by recent developments in political theory such as the interest in 'identity' or 'narrative'.

The terms "politics" and "literature" are both "essentially-contestable" concepts. "Politics" can mean political practice, political ideas or the study of politics; "literature" can mean the writing of books, the content of those books or the reading of them. "Politics and literature" is often taken to be synonymous with "political literature," but different usages of "politics" and "literature" will produce other connections. Much of the work in "politics and literature" hitherto has been of a sociological nature. Less interest has been shown in the distinctively political aspects of the possible relationships between the study of politics — political thought in the widest sense — and the content of literature.No methodology has yet been developed, in Literary Studies or Political Science, for the explication and understanding of these connections. The sociology of literature, however, provides terminology that may be useful in establishing such links.

This lively collection of essays gives a non-technical, but profound analysis of the essential relationship between politics and literature.

This article deals with the literature of perestroika and focuses on the post-Soviet period. From the period of perestroika onwards, Russian literature, in its three avatars as official Soviet literature, dissident literature in the samizdat and Russian literature published abroad, came under the single category of 'Russian Literature'. However, many diverse voices continue to exist in this now 'unified' literary scenario. The article identifies major movements, themes, critical positions and styles in contemporary Russian literature. It analyses works by major contemporary writers and also examines critical voices in the contemporary literary scene.

This study investigates the relationship between literature and politics during Mongolia's early revolutionary period. Between the 1921 socialist revolution and the first Writers' Congress, held in April 1948, the literary community constituted a key resource in the formation and implementation of policy. At the same time, debates within the party, discontent among the population, and questions of religion and tradition led to personal and ideological conflict among the intelligentsia and, in many cases, to trials and executions. Using primary texts, many of them translated into English for the first time, Simon Wickhamsmith shows the role played by the literary arts - poetry, fiction and drama - in the complex development of the new society

AbstractCatherine Zuckert's earliest published work was in the area of Politics and Literature. From the start she saw this work as an important supplement to the dominant forms of political science and American political thought. Her work in this area, especially her manifesto-like journal articles and her first book, Natural Right and the American Imagination, made the case that literature provides insight into both the internal and hidden lives of democratic citizens as well as into the elusive broader regime-character of the political community.

Niccolò Machiavelli : a demonized humanist or a monster of modern politics? -- Giambattista Vico : power and imagination in the dispute between ancients and moderns -- Cervantes vs. Shakespeare : the sociogenesis of love and friendship in Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet -- Behind utopias : where shall the conservative imagination be found? -- Behind dystopias : where shall the liberal imagination be found?