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Theory of Literature
vious examples of such "treason" to one's class. Outside of Russia,
most Communist writers are not proletarian in origin. Soviet and
other Marxist critics have carried out extensive investigations to
ascertain precisely both the exact social provenience and the social
allegiance of Russian writers. Thus P. N. Sakulin bases his treatment
of recent Russian literature on careful distinctions between
the respective literatures of the peasants, the small bourgeoisie,
the democratic intelligentsia, the declasse intelligentsia, the
bourgeoisie, the aristocracy, and the revolutionary proletariat. 5
In the study of older literature, Russian scholars attempt elab-
orate distinctions between the many groups and sub-groups of
the Russian aristocracy to whom Pushkin and Gogol, Turgenev
and Tolstoy may be shown to have belonged by virtue of their
inherited wealth and early associations. 6 But it is difficult to prove
that Pushkin represented the interests of the impoverished
landed nobility and Gogol those of the Ukrainian small land-
holder ; such a conclusion is indeed disproved by the general
ideology of their works and by the appeal the works have made
beyond the confines of a group, a class, and a time. 7
The social origins of a writer play only a minor part in the
questions raised by his social status, allegiance, and ideology; for
writers, it is clear, have often put themselves at the service of
another class. Most Court poetry was written by men who,
though born in lower estate, adopted the ideology and taste of
their patrons.
The social allegiance, attitude, and ideology of a writer can be
studied not only in his writings but also, frequently, in biograph-
ical extra-literary documents. The writer has been a citizen, has
pronounced on questions of social and political importance, has
taken part in the issues of his time.
Much work has been done upon political and social views of
individual writers; and in recent times more and more attention
has been devoted to the economic implications of these views.
Thus L. C. Knights, arguing that Ben Jonson's economic attitude
was profoundly medieval, shows how, like several of his fellow-
dramatists, he satirized the rising class of usurers, monopolists,
speculators, and "undertakers." s Many works of literature—e.g.,
the "histories" of Shakespeare and Swift's Gulliver's Travels—
have been reinterpreted in close relation to the political context