The Citizen's Voice

Michael Keren studies the political ideas conveyed by some of the twentieth century's greatest novelists in this insightful and long-overdue study of political philosophy via literature. This book expounds the key features of the "good citizen" as expressed by eight literary characters: Hans Castorp (Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain), Joseph K. (Franz Kafka's The Trial), John the Savage (Aldous Huxley's Brave New World), Winston Smith (George Orwell's 1984), Ralph (William Golding's Lord of the Flies), Meursault (Albert Camus' The Stranger), Ida Ramundo (Elsa Morante's History), and Chauncey Gardiner (Jerzy Kosinski's Being There). Keren observes these characters as they struggle through the world wars, the rise and fall of totalitarianism, the Holocaust, the development of the atomic bomb, de-colonisation, the Cold War, and globalisation. As both participants in and victims of the twentieth century's ideological, technological and organisational projects, these characters reflect on their experiences, and Keren explores how the nature of their self-reflection advances the notion of civil society on a global scale. A refreshing contribution to civil society theory and represents a pioneering effort to cross the boundaries between politics, literature, and culture.