Conclusion, Political Criticism Summary and Analysis

This book has attempted to show the intimate connection between literary theory and politics. While many literary theories are not explicitly political, all literary theories are subject and permeated by the political and social ideologies of their days; therefore, it is those who attempt to be explicitly non-political and objective who do the most harm by disguising ideology as science. It is this inseparable connection between the world of politics and the world of literature which gives literary theory its importance in an age of seemingly imminent nuclear holocaust and severe economic and social injustice. And, as most literary theory for the past two centuries has been characterized chiefly by a desire to be unpolitical and escape the modern world, it has paradoxically reaffirmed the very doctrine that has led to the socially and politically oppressive forces...