The Political Criticism Theme In Solzhenitsyn’s Novels

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn who was awarded the Nobel Prize inliterature in1970was under the title of “Russia’s conscience”. As a famous writer,Solzhenitsyn achieved lots of reputations during his life, but he also became acontroversial writer due to the political criticism theme in his works. In one of hisbest-known works One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn expressed hisdeep criticism to Stalin, which provided powerful evidences for Khrushchev’santi-Stalin activities. Then Solzhenitsyn was well recognized by Khrushchevbenefiting from his political criticism theme in his works and achieved fame soon.From then on, the theme of political criticism turned out to be the mainline of hisworks which exposed the seamy society and demonstrated the characteristics of hisworks.This paper will be divided into four chapters to discuss the political criticismtheme of Solzhenitsyn works.The first part was mainly to explain the reason for his political criticism theme.On one hand, his political criticism theme was the result of Russian traditional culture,especially the anarchism thought tradition, suffering writing tradition andhumanitarian tradition. On the other hand, the social environment also impelled theformation of his political criticism theme that expressed his resistance and protest tosoviet totalitarianism. In addition, his own misery experience also offered direct andevident source materials for his writing theme.The second part was to discuss the political criticism theme from various angles.First, the theme is cleared through comparing his hate to “country” and deep love tohomeland. In his opinion,“country” is a cold-blood word of authority institution; on the contrary, homeland stands for the broad land in Russia and the kind people livingon the land. Through criticizing the authorities, Solzhenitsyn aimed to revealing thenature of authorities and helping people to recognize the current situation at that time.Second, Solzhenitsyn initiated the “forced labor camp system literature” in the historyof Russian literature. The political criticism theme was presented through describingthe miserable life of people in forced labor camp. Last but not the least, throughexploring the human nature of ordinary people and potentates, he delivered his deeplove to ordinary people and hate to the potentates.The third part was mainly to analyze the textualized pathway and characteristicsof political criticism theme. As a writer, his thought and viewpoints are totallydelivered through his works and political criticism theme is always the mainline of hisworks. He often used some means of artistic expression to make the criticism thememore profound and stark-naked. This part mainly analyzes the theme from threerespects, including mirroring description, symbolism and highly enriched time andspace.The last chapter was to discuss the implied meaning of his political criticismtheme. With political criticism theme, Solzhenitsyn was not only to expose darknessof the society but also expressed his deep concern to ordinary people and recognitionto people’s dignity. The humanism became his powerful weapon to hit politics andsublimated his political criticism theme.