Publications and Research
Document Type
Book Chapter or Section
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
This essay explores how British and American writers and theorists in the first half of the twentieth century thought about art, propaganda, and truth. Focusing largely on literature written during the First and the Second World Wars, this essay shows that very few authors defined their art as propaganda or truth and instead used words like “political,” “resistance,” “information,” and “anti-fascist” to describe their wartime writing. However, while authors might have eschewed the term propaganda, that does not mean that they avoided producing it. As this essay illustrates, what many authors wrote would now be considered “propaganda.” Moreover, even if the work itself was not obviously political or propagandistic, the uses to which it was put during wartime marked it as such, regardless of the author’s intent.
Included in
Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Political History Commons, United States History Commons
Comments
Original published as a book chapter in Guide to Politics and Literature in English. Edited by Matthew Stratton. 2023, pages 280-290. @ Routledge.