| dc.description | The essential function of art, from the perspective of the political realist, is to provide society with a focus in its own social, moral, and political conditions. Literature, from this same political perspective, is regarded not only as a vehicle for the transmission of ideas and values, a forum through which writers and readers share feelings, experiences and perceptions, but also as a kind of mirror in which the reader can examine, analyze and reflect upon the nature and causes of those conditions. The esthetic, as well as the social value of literature, then, at least from this point of view, is essentially determined by the extent to which it performs this social/political function. John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos, both early 20th century political realists, as well as penetrating historical thinkers, were artists whose literary works fall specifically within this social/esthetic category | |
