Great writers who were conservatives?

[Ryduce]

Let me start off with a disclaimer that this is not intended to be a political argument,so please don't interpret it as such,or turn it into one.

The other day in English class,my professor asserted that all of the great writers were liberals.Nobody objected,and I just didn't have the energy nor the desire to debate such a claim.However,the more I think about it,the more disillusioned with education I become.Are there no conservative writers in the history of literature?Am I the insane individualist here?

For the sake of academics and my own sanity,help me out here.

[Sir Bartholomew]

Jane Austen

[Chester]

Conservative? Liberal?

You might just want to ask your professor why s/he's so interested in categorizing and pigeonholing. What's up with that?

[Kafka's Crow]

Tolstoy!

Hi Ryduce, do you go to the University of Virginia by any chance? Do you know Jerome Mcgann? He was my teacher once upon a time and I am sure he would not make such a silly exertion as above!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_McGann

[Inderjit Sanghe]

Following his incarceration, Dostoevskii was something of a reactionary-note his bland characterisation of such nihilists as Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, the Underground Man, Ivan Karamzov and whatshisface in The Devils, names don't really matter when it comes to Dostoevskii, I guess, his novels are full of neurotic, revolutionary sociopaths who get their comeuppance or realise the error of their ways, though they usually need a noble prostitute to help them. Ivan Karmazov is a very interesting character though.

I guess it all depends on how you define the terms 'conservative' and 'liberal'. (i.e. classic Lockean liberalism, or libertarianism, or the parochial modern American coinage of liberalism as a 'left-wing' trait.)

Tolkien was an anarchist, but he could, in terms of his political and social views, be labelled a "conservative". He certainly supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War, as did Evelyn Waugh, though both were Catholics. I am pretty sure that Updike wrote his Rabbit tetralogy in response to the 'liberal' beat generation. (Kerouac, Burroughs etc.) Hamsun and Celine supported Nazism.

Writers, however, are often very individualistic and tend to be free thinkers, and refuse to be classified under any kind of arbitrary and somewhat inane 'liberal conservative' labels. Besides, politics and art should be seperate, otherwise you often end up with some very mediocre art.

Tolstoy!

Like with Tolkien, the Tolstoy situation is pretty interesting. In some ways he could be classfied as a conservative, but he was also an anarchist and held some unorthodox views about Christianity too, or so I think, correct me if I am wrong.

[Kafka's Crow]

Will Self is a card-carrying conservative and a prominent voice in contemporary English literary scene. American definition of 'liberal' is extremely narrow indeed (good post Inderjeet!) and to most Americans 'liberal' is a swear word.

[nebish]

Will Self is left-wing. Pirandello, now there's a black-shirt ****.

[Kafka's Crow]

Will Self is left-wing. Pirandello, now there's a black-shirt ****.

What's a "****"? Will Self worked for the Conservative Party during the Thatcher years as far as I am aware, he is a friend of my friend's. Once again, we come across someone with very nonconformist attitudes. Even if Pirandello was a Fascist, we are concerned with his writing here, aren't we?

[mayneverhave]

A lot of the Neo-Classical era writers/poets were conservative.

[mortalterror]

Hemingway was a Republican. He also held some pretty conservative views about women, children, government, etc. I'd hesitate to say for sure, but I think Dante might be well classified as conservative as well. The real problem for me with the term is just exactly how it's use has shifted from country to country and time to time. Conservative compared to what? A person may be extremely liberal for his time, but then centuries may pass and contemporaries could classify that person a conservative. Today, just letting your wife wear blue jeans in Saudi Arabia might get you branded as a liberal nut. On the streets of New York it's not a big deal. The concepts of conservatism and liberalism have too much plasticity to be satisfactorily and definitively categorized.

[PeterL]

Many writers are, or have been, conservative, but those labels are too tight for many authors. Twain had characteristics of an extreme radical progressive, in addition to being fundamentally conservative. John Milton was a conservative; although he had been one of Cromwell's people, it wasn't about political freedom it was a religious matter for him.

[Ryduce]

Tolstoy!

Hi Ryduce, do you go to the University of Virginia by any chance? Do you know Jerome Mcgann? He was my teacher once upon a time and I am sure he would not make such a silly exertion as above!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_McGann

No,I go to William and Mary,but I may consider UVA for grad school.Alot of my friends do go there.I had no desire to live in a dorm when I can live here and have my mother cook me food and do my laundry every day.Independence is overrated when free food is involved.

As far as the topic.I'm not sure why everything,including literature, has to be broken down into such a strict dichotomy of ideas.I'm sure that everyone is very complex with thier beliefs,and transcends the polarity of associations.I always thought of Hemingway and Doestoevsky as conservatives,but when discussing literary works of such beauty all the other stuff doesn't matter.Even in college,everything has to be about politics.It's very disheartening for a modest dude like myself just trying to learn.

[Virgil]

Ry, this is a subject I've given some thought to over time and i'll respond to this when i get a little more time, perhaps tonight.

[JBI]

Graham Greene.

[Virgil]

Graham Greene.

Afraid not. Greene may have been religious, but he was a socialist.