A Political or Apolitical Literature?

Abstract

A popular literary argument circulating the literary circuit nowadays concerns the supposedly “apolitical” nature of literature. This view of literature and literary theory is particularly expounded in Western academic circles, which intentionally depoliticize the political, claiming that any “political” reading is propaganda, not scholarship. It will be argued that the “depoliticization” process is itself a political move at its core, as Edward Said explains in much of his work, especially in his book The World, The Text and The Critic. This research will examine when and why literature and literary theory become most significantly “political” or even “apolitical.” This entails a close consideration of certain critical views and literatures arising in what has been called “crises cultures,” in addition to a reconsideration of traditional apolitical readings of the works of English literary poets, such as William Blake and Percy Shelley..