John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle as a Lesson of Commitment (original) (raw)
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UDK 821.111(73).03.09 Steinbeck J.=163.6 CENTENNIAL REFLECTIONS ON STEINBECK'S REPUTATION INSLOVENIA
2016
Since the late 1920s and his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), there has been little consensus about John Steinbeck's work, and he has often been praised or dismissed for the wrong reasons. In the wake of the novels with the sweeping reach and social consciousness of In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and despite the prodigious and startlingly diverse output of his career, Steinbeck was generally regarded as one of America's foremost engaged artists. However, the truth is that be was as much a postmodernist and a modernist, as a traditional proletarian writer. And though be made a significant contribution to the perception of the problems of his time by writing with empathy, clarity and a strong sense of justice about the downtrodden, the exploited, and the defenseless, which contributed to his immense public success, Steinbeck's novels lose none of their richness and power when removed from their historical context. With the...
John Steinbeck as a Radical Novelist
2008
The radical literary tradition of the 1930"s inspired many American authors to become more concerned with the struggle of the proletariat. John Steinbeck is one of these authors. Steinbeck"s novels throughout the 1930"s and 1940"s display a lack of agreement with the common Communist principles being portrayed by other radical novelists, but also a definite alignment with several more basic Marxist principles. The core of his radical philosophy comes in the form of his interest in group-man or the phalanx. An interest that is rather uncommon for the period, as most radical novelists were more concerned with illustrating the solitary nature of the proletarian worker. Over the course of his career this philosophy evolves, as can be illustrated through an analysis of In Dubious Battle, The Grapes of Wrath, and Cannery Row. In Dubious Battle is highly critical of Communist labor organizers, and sets Steinbeck apart form the radical tradition by questioning rather than supporting their motivation. The labor organizers manipulate the phalanx in this novel, and Steinbeck leaves the reader with the impression that the group-man is being corrupted. The Grapes of Wrath is also a socially motivated novel, with an abundance of Marxist undertones, but most importantly the novel provides Steinbeck with a better medium within which he can further examine the phalanx. Throughout this novel Steinbeck remains separate from other propagandists, as he supports his own agenda rather than that of the Party. Steinbeck"s communal exploration comes to fruition in Cannery Row. While the novel has received a relatively small amount of critical attention due to the common presumption that Steinbeck intended the work to be a diversion from war, the characters of Cannery Row provide Steinbeck with the ultimate vehicle to illustrate the importance of the phalanx. Together these novels represent the evolution of Steinbeck"s radical philosophy, particularly as it pertains to his vision of communal existence. While this vision of collectivity is what aligns Steinbeck with the most basic of Marxist principles, the mysticism he surrounds it with is what serves to set him apart from the more utilitarian communist appreciation of the phalanx. This argument will come largely in the form of analysis of Steinbeck"s mouthpieces, which are characters in the novels that illustrate Steinbeck"s philosophy either through speech or action. The conclusion of the analysis will show that Steinbeck is definitely a radical novelist, even though he is sometimes at odds with the tenets of the greater radical tradition.
Solidarity Forever: The Historical Background of John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle
2015
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Centennial reflections on Steinbeck's reputation in Slovenia
Acta Neophilologica
Since the late 1920s and his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), there has been little consensus about John Steinbeck's work, and he has often been praised or dismissed for the wrong reasons. In the wake of the novels with the sweeping reach and social consciousness of In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and despite the prodigious and startlingly diverse output of his career, Steinbeck was generally regarded as one of America's foremost engaged artists. However, the truth is that be was as much a postmodernist and a modernist, as a traditional proletarian writer. And though be made a significant contribution to the perception of the problems of his time by writing with empathy, clarity and a strong sense of justice about the downtrodden, the exploited, and the defenseless, which contributed to his immense public success, Steinbeck's novels lose none of their richness and power when removed from their historical context. With the...
John Steinbeck and East European Critics and Publishers
2018
Because of his uncompromising exposure of social ills in his Depression-era novels, John Steinbeck, American Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1962, had a wide critical appeal in the communist part of divided post-war Europe. His works were manipulated by the communist propaganda and inadvertently served as political tools. This article examines the writer’s fortunes in Eastern Europe and shows how ideological forces fuelled literary discourses and affected the critical reception and circulation of his works.
Abstrak Tujuan dari tulisan ini adalah untuk menganalisis sudut padang John Steinbeck tentang situasi pada tahun 1930an di Amerika. Metode yang digunakan adalah studi pustaka dengan mengobservasi buku karya John Steinbeck yaitu In Dubious Battle dan menganalisis buku tersebut dengan textual approach. Di samping itu penulis juga menggunakan sumber lain. Dalam novel ini John Steinbeck membahas tentang penderitaan orang Amerika khususnya pekerja, petani, dan orang-orang biasa. Menurut Steinbeck penderitaan mereka dikarenakan oleh faktor ekonomi dan sistem politik yang mengganggu mereka. Pemetik buah dalam In Dubious Battle melakukan pemogokan kerja untuk mendapatkan kehidupan yang lebih baik yang dapat membantu kehidupan mereka. Dengan menganalisis novel In Dubious Battle penulis mengambil kesimpulan bahwa John Steinbeck telah berhasil menuangkan idenya melalui novel ini. John Steinbeck ingin menyampaikan kepada pembaca bahwa selama era depresi dan penderitaan masih terdapat nilai-nilai martabat. Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze John Steinbeck's point of view about the situation happened in the year of 1930 in Amerika. The method that the writer uses is library research to analyze John Steinbeck's book entitled In Dubious Battle by using textual approach. In addition, the writer has also used other sources. In this novel, John Steinbeck talked about the suffering of the American people especially the workers, the farmers, and other common people. According to Steinbeck their suffering was caused by the economic and political system which gnawed them. The fruit-picker In Dubious Battle launched their strike in order to get their better life. By analyzing In Dubious Battle, the writer made a conclusion that John Steinbeck was successful in conveying his ideas through this novel. He wanted to tell the readers that during the depressing and suffering eras there were still values of dignities.
Where Is 'East of Eden’? The Politics of Steinbeck’s Literary Reputation in Slovenia
2018
Katherine Arens maintains that literary texts or authors can function as prototypes for their speech genres within literary history and in a cultural community. Until very recently, in Slovenia, John Steinbeck has been regarded primarily as an objective social chronicler of the Great Depression. This popular critical view, earned with his “labor trilogy,” The Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men, is needlessly limiting, given that Steinbeck’s literary achivements extend well beyond the modes and methods of traditional realism or documentary representation. Written against the background of the critical discourse regarding the political implications of literary works and the ways in which readers are involved in creating the texts they read, this essay analyzes the indicators of and the plausible reasons for the unprecedented popularity of Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. It shows that in past decades, when Slovenia was in the grip of communist rule, even this book,...