AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: AMERICAN ART AND AMERICAN POLITICS

Text topic: Literature and Truth

Text author: Peter Swirski

My central premise is that approaching political literature as a grassroots expression of American democracy offers a crucial vantage point for a critical look at America’s erroneous conceptions of itself. Traceable to the ubiquitous culture of spin, questions about the level of citizens’ participation—or indeed, lack thereof—in the political process are really questions about the degree to which political apathy is rooted in and reflected by the culture in which we all participate.