anarchy

7 downloads 0 Views 161KB Size Report
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. This is both sur- prising and intruiging knowing that Swift is not an anarchist thinker at all. James Preu observes that,.
Literature ANARCY IN LITERATURE by Birgitte Breemerkamp

ANARCHY

IN LITERATURE GODWIN AND THOREAU: FATHERS OF ANARCHISTIC LITERATURE

A

ccording to Donald Drew Ebert, anar-

Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. Furthermore,

chism is a doctrine “which rejects the

Godwin’s “individualistic kind of anarchism profoundly

idea that society is governed by rational

affected English and American romantic literature and

laws”. The words ‘anarchist’ and ‘anar-

art as well as English and American social thought”.4

chism,’

Interestingly, Godwin was greatly inspired by Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. This is both sur-

The two terms derive from the Greek anar-

prising and intruiging knowing that Swift is not an

chos, meaning ‘without head or chief,’ by way of

anarchist thinker at all. James Preu observes that,

anarchia,

a

peo-

connote

both

oddly enough, Godwin would have admired Swift less

of

had he understood him better, for it is evident that his

these terms out of the Greek during the French

admiration for Swift was based on a misunderstanding of

Revolution is significant because it reflects that

Swift’s purpose. For this paradoxical situation, two factors

reversion

ple

meaning

without

individualism

1. Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts: Western Europe. A Cultural History from the French Revolution to 1968 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970) 43-44. 2. Ibid., p.44 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid., p. 44-45 5. So far as James Preu has been able to ascertain, Godwin made but one joke in his life. See Ford Keeler Brown, The Life of William Godwin (London, 1926) 8 6. James Preu, “Swift’s Influence on Godwin’s Doctrine of Anarchism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 15-3 (1954): 371-383 7. Jared McGeough,,”Unlimited Questioning: the literary anarchism of William Godwin,” Studies in the Literary Imagination 45.2 (2012): 1-25 8. Ibid. 9. H.N. Brailsford, Shelley, Godwin, and their Circle (London: Oxford UP, 1914) 143 10. Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts: Western Europe. A Cultural History from the French Revolution to 1968 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970) 45

in the context we use them

today, have their origins in the French Revolution:

‘the

condition

government’: and

they

anti-statism.

of

The

origin

classical Antiquity

were mainly responsible. In the first place, Godwin was

which marked both the social thought and the art of the

literalminded to an extraordinary degree and was almost

time.1

completely lacking in a sense of humor.5 This literalmind-

to

exemplars

from

edness led him to take at face value what Swift had The French Revolution and the anarchist ideals

written with the overemphasis characteristic of satire.

that were propagated about individualism has

Another important factor in Godwin’s tendency to mistake

served as an inspiration for authors and art-

Swift’s meaning is the fact that Godwin’s interpreta-

ists across Europe. In this article, we will take a

tion of Swift was colored by his own preconceptions.6

closer look at the most important and influential authors in Great Britain and the United States.

William Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, first published in 1793 and in a revised edition in 1796

William Godwin

and 1798, is “often cited as a founding philosophical

Egbert notes that “[t]he first great modern anarchist

text for modern anarchism”.7 According to Jared

did not call himself one.” The person Egbert talks about

McGeough, “it is Godwin’s distinctive use of literature

is none other than author William Godwin, known to

that allows him to revise and question the Utopian

most of us as the author of Caleb Williams and the

rhetoric of his anarchism”.8 Godwin’s novel Caleb

father of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. However,

Williams, in particular, is interpreted as a literary device

Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning… Political Justice, which

for exploring anarchistic themes and theories by many

has been written “partly under the influence of sym-

scholars, “[carrying] forward the essence of the criti-

pathy for the French Revolution in 1793 (the year in

cism against society, which had inspired Political Justice”.9

which the word ‘anarchist’ was first used in

France),”2

may be considered as “the first monument of modern

Henry David Thoreau

anarchist theory, while also being a logical continua-

In the United States an anarchist tradition emerged

tion of [Jean Jacques] Rousseau’s Discourse on … the

as well, which was “independently represented

William Godwin’s writings have

by […] Henry David Thoreau”.10 The American

been a big influence on Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel

strand of anarchism has a strong(er) emphasis

Origin of

Inequality”.3

8 • The Angler • Year 12 • Issue 1: Anarchy in the UK

Literature ANARCHY IN LITERATURE by Birgitte Breemerkamp on individualism, which “especially fit in with the

Easterbrook notices that these particular philosophers

suspicion with which many Americans, Thoreau and

all have either a strong distrust or completely reject

his admirer Frank Lloyd Wright among them, have

authority and “a privileging of collective justice over

government”.11

individual property”. These traits could give people

Thoreau’s anarchistic theory, which he presented in

the idea that anarchism therefore is related to the

his novel Walden, centered on an idea Thoreau “had

left side of the political spectrum, but Easterbrook

entertained at least since his honors graduation

warns that this is a misconception: at the right side of

speech at Harvard, in which he suggested that

the political spectrum there are also thinkers whose

a week should consist of one day of labor and

philosophy shares these traits. The most famous

six of rest, though by rest he meant the kind

example is Ayn Rand, author of famous works such

traditionally regarded a strong central

of study, self-culture, and artistic productivity to

as The Fountainhead (1943), Atlas Shrugged (1957), and

M. Jimmie

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966). Rand’s writings

Killingsworth links Thoreau’s move to Walden to the

are in turn inspired by the works of economists

philosophy and actions of the Occupy Movement:

Friedrich von Hayek, who wrote the famous and

which he eventually gave his

life”.12

influential The Road to Serfdom (1944), and Milton Thoreau stayed closer to home—with great effect. For

Friedman and Richard Epstein. Easterbrook writes that

while those citizens, even friends and relatives, who travelled west, might never be heard of again, the eccentric

Rand’s

who squatted on local land, playing at the pioneering

seemed more a cult of personality than a set of

lifestyle to make a point, dramatizing a critique of village

arguments about political economy and philosophy

life, was not as easy to dismiss, forget, ignore. [...] In

[…]. The

moving to Walden, then in leaving Walden, he laid claim

fiction may well be its astonishing level of self-

to the nomadism cherished by the American middle class.

confident certainty and its brazen transformation

He was the spiritual and artistic ancestor to the people of

of a character fault, selfish greed, into the greatest

Occupy Wall Street, who move to town with a message.13

human

enormous

most

contemporary

philosophy

is

literature,

often

found

in

anarchist the

seductive

virtue—

perhaps, in In

notoriety

philosophical

has

aspects

something

Rand’s

choice

disposition:

sometimes

of

of

Rand’s

best

reflected,

name

for

her

objectivism . 16

Science

Fiction genre. As Neil Easterbrook points out,

The works of American SF author Ursula Le Guin, in particular her novel The Dispossessed: An

[l]ibertarian and anarchist SF (the latter represented

Ambiguous Utopia (1974), however, show parallels

in works by Ursula K. Le Guin and Ken MacLeod)

with William Godwin’s philosophy, as Le Guin “treats

are

radical

both systems [capitalism and anarchism] skeptically,

challenge they present to complacent conceptions

identifying the positive and pleasurable opportunities

woe. 14

created though capitalism and the rigidity of a

of

all the

the

more

interesting

commonweal

and

for

The works of SF author Ursula Le Guin show parallels with William Godwin’s philosphy.’”

the

common

communal system controlled by the moral imperative Indeed, the science fiction genre is the ideal vehicle to

of ‘shared pain’.”17 Easterbrook further notes that

explore “utopian invocations of political alternatives,”

“Le Guin’s fiction has had a profound effect on

by portraying an alternative future (or history) in which

the real world: Occupy Wall Street organizers and

either a totalitarian or lack of a central government

websites frequently cite The Dispossessed and her

can be explored: “political philosophers — William

other major novel, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969);

Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Michael Bakunin,

some protesters at Occupy Oakland marched with

and Peter Kropotkin — gave rise to an alternative

placards depicting the cover of The Dispossessed”18

political tradition, one that comes to fruition in contemporary versions of anarchist and libertarian

Still, Ayn Rand, particularly her novel Atlas Shrugged, is

SF”.15

considered the most influential in the United States by

thought, two very strong influences within

most scholars: “Rand seems as prominent now as ever she was, and it is commonplace to see ‘I am John Galt’

11. Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts: Western Europe. A Cultural History from the French Revolution to 1968 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970): 45 12. M. Jimmie Killingsworth, “Occupy Walden,” South Central Review 80-1 (2013): 83-96 13. Ibid. 14. Neil Easterbrook, “Libertarianism and Anarchism,” The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction edited by Rob Latham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) DOI: 10.1093/oxford hb/9780199838844.013.0043 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid.. 18. See: Paul Morton, “Getting Away with Murder: The Millions Interviews Ursula K. Le Guin,” The Millions Jan. 31 (2013). http://www.themillions. com/2013/01/getting-away-withmurder-the-millions-interviewsursula-k-le-guin.html

The Angler • Year 12 • Issue 1: Anarchy in the UK • 9

Literature ANARCHY IN LITERATURE by Birgitte Breemerkamp

signs at libertarian political rallies or in groups of fellow travelers, such as the Tea Party movement (Gary Weiss calls Rand ‘The First Teabagger’)”.19 In the United States, the distinctions between libertarianism and anarchism seem to have become blurred over time.

Modernism: a style that developed, in part, out of earlier exchanges between individualist aesthetics and anarchist politics”

Anarchism in art The anti-government stance and individualism in anarchist philosophy has also influenced the art world. The reason for this, according to Egbert, is that anarchism would have a special attraction for artists in both Europe and America, because of the highly individualistic, anti-official, and artistically revolutionary nature of so much avant-garde art since the late eighteenth century, and because so many of the founders and leaders of both communist and individualist anarchism […] regarded at least some of the arts as being highly important. The combination, even within communistanarchism, of an individualistic emphasis, frequent interest in the arts, and strongly social aims naturally made anarchism appeal to artists who regarded themselves as being both artistically and socially radical.20 In modern and contemporary literature and art, anarchist theory remains a big influence to

this

very

day.

David Weir

notes

that

[b]y the second decade of the twentieth century, aesthetic anarchism had entered into culture so completely that it made little difference whether individual artists advocated anarchism or not. The case can be made that James Joyce was largely sympathetic to anarchistic thought, whereas T. S. Eliot assuredly was not.

Nonetheless, both of these

writers worked in the fragmented, discontinuous style 19. Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America’s Soul (New York: St. Martin’s, 2012): 138-44. 20. Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts: Western Europe. A Cultural History from the French Revolution to 1968 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970): 45 21. David Weir, Anarchy and culture: the aesthetic politics of modernism (Amherst, USA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997): 201

so often identified with modernism, a style that developed, in part, out of earlier individualist

aesthetics

and

exchanges between anarchist

politics. 21

Even though the power of anarchism as a political force seems to have waned, the influence of anarchist philosophy continues to captivate people’s minds. The

anarchist

thought

which William

Godwin and Henry David Thoreau introduced over two hundred years ago, can still be felt quite strongly in today’s art, literature, film, and fashion.

10 • The Angler • Year 12 • Issue 1: Anarchy in the UK