Encyclopedia of Literature and Politics: Censorship, Revolution, and Writing

“Literary studies”, says the preface, “have come to be dominated by approaches that emphasize the social, historical, and political significance of literary works”. I am not sure I entirely agree, but I suppose it depends what is meant by “literary studies” – it is not the study of literature, that is for sure, although much of literature will have elements of social, historical and political comment in them, even if unconscious. Every piece of writing makes some sort of a statement, not least this review! Nonetheless, a number of authors do make strong political points; many an author has been...