| In his 1934 essay "The Author as Producer" Walter Benjamin insists that the author must write with a political tendency in order to take a stand against an impending political collapse of government, referring to the rise of Nazi Germany and its threat to the rights of individual citizens. When some writers in the United States recognized that the American people were adversely affected by politics on the local and federal level, they advocated equal rights and social justice for all Americans. These texts were regarded as radical and closely linked to radical leftist politics in the 1930s. Initially, they were granted no place in the literary canon on the premise that textual radicalism goes hand in hand with poor writing; only recently have they found a place in a newly created sub-canon. Critics argued that socio-economic issues depicted in these texts did not conform to the conventional standards of aesthetic and economic values. Especially around the middle of the century, they heavily emphasized a link between the radical text in the United States and the rise and fall of the communist movement elsewhere in the world, thereby successfully marginalizing certain authors and their texts.; This study examines the radical text and links its significance to the survival of the American Dream. Besides escaping from religious persecution, settlers and immigrants to this country have always brought with them the dream that with determination, hard work and sacrifice they could be in control of their lives and secure better lives for their children. By examining John Steinbeck, Meridel Le Sueur, James Baldwin, Grace Paley and their works, I argue that these independently thinking authors continued to inscribe the American Dream into the literary tradition. In recording the plight of several groups in society, particularly African Americans, women and children, and exposing their struggles, these authors do not negate the power of the individual. Instead, they recognize the interrelatedness of individuals and stress the open-endedness of possible solutions to individual hardships. To various degrees these authors identify the need to reject American society's sole focus on the rights and strengths of the individual and instead introduce the reader to forms of decentralized, communal living and working that ensure a redistribution of wealth and resources. |
