The Complicity of Literature and Politics:Steinbeck in the Political Spectrum and His Literary Practice
The relationship between literature and politics is a permanent topic for discussion in literary studies.Steinbeck was one of the most representative 20th-century writers who participated in actual politics.Witnessing such significant events as the Great Depression,the Second World War,the Cold War,and the Vietnam War,he got involved in them in his own way and gave rise to the acute controversy over his political tendency which has lasted for more than half a century.While some consider that he was on the left,others conclude that he was on the right,and still others deem his political standpoint as ambiguous.In the decades of his writing career,Steinbeck's literary practice was always influenced by the complicity of literature and politics.He not only experienced the glory of success,but also suffered from the loneliness of failure.More often his career was characterized by his anguished struggle against the pulls of literature and politics.This paper intends to examine diachronically the complicated and changeable literary practice during the"peak period"and the"decline period"of Steinbeck's writing,so as to be helpful for the understanding of the"success"and"failure"which marked his career.
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