The Novel of American Authoritarianism

Phelps, Christopher

Abstract

Fictional literature portraying the descent of the United States into dictatorship is assessed critically and divided into three cultural-historical phases, each specific in class modality. Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar’s Column (1890) and Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1907) project a plutocracy violently imposed to forestall working-class revolution. Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (1935) and other mid-century novels envision a demagogic American authoritarianism, with working-class and lower-middle-class grievances exploited to amass personal power. In the Cold War and neoliberal eras, class recedes from salience in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004). Despite Atwood’s brilliant evocation of totalitarian patriarchy and the extraordinary interiority of Sherwood Anderson’s Marching Men (1917), the novels of American authoritarianism are on the whole characterized by aesthetic implausibility, one-sided apprehension of authoritarianism’s class dynamics, and failure to treat white supremacy as central.

Citation

Phelps, C. (2020). The Novel of American Authoritarianism. Science and Society, 84(2), 232-260. https://doi.org/10.1521/siso.2020.84.2.232

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Deposit Date: Jul 23, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 2, 2020
• Journal: Science & Society
• Print ISSN: 0036-8237
• Publisher: Guilford Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 84
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 232-260
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1521/siso.2020.84.2.232
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2024131
• Publisher URL: https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.2020.84.2.232
• Additional Information: The Novel of American Authoritarianism, Christopher Phelps. Copyright 2020. Copyright Guilford Press. Reprinted with permission of The Guilford Press