The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Selected Essays on Marxist Traditions in Cultural Commitment

by Alan M. Wald

This is a book that will engage students and scholars of U.S. literature and radicalism, as well as political activists in the labor, antiracist, peace, and socialist movements. It brings together many of Alan M. Wald's most influential and original essays of the last decade on Marxist writers and intellectuals. A richly provocative inquiry into the antinomies of cultural radicalism, the collection is distinguished by Wald's characteristic blend of original, meticulous research with lucid, incisive theory.
These essays center on Wald's efforts to critically assess what remains recuperable in the traditions of "committed" radical cultural workers. The selections include biographical sketches of twentieth-century activist writers, artists, and intellectuals; the analysis of radical fiction, poetry, and works of criticism; the critique of various Marxist theories of cultural policy and practice; a review of contemporary debates about racism and culture; and several searching explorations of the ambiguities and challenges of left-wing political commitment in our time.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Alan M. Wald is an American professor emeritus of English Literature and American Culture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and writer of 20th-Century American literature who focuses on Communist writers; he is an expert on the American 20th-Century "Literary Left."