Questions tagged [politics]
For questions regarding politics in literature or concerning literature/literary figures. Please note that general questions about politics that aren't directly tied to literature are off-topic and should be asked on the Politics Stack Exchange site instead.
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Is this a political reference in "Ozma of Oz"?
Ozma of Oz, one of the several rather lesser-known sequels to L Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz (full text here), contains the following passage in Chapter 6, "The Heads of Langwidere":...
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Who said "If you don't do politics, politics will do you"?
There is a quote, "If you don't do politics, politics will do you."
Who said it? Google says that it's either Pericles or Bismarck, but neither of Wikiquote's pages for them includes this.
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Is Mike an anarchist in *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress*?
In the later parts of Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, we find out that Manny and Prof are motivated by their anarchist political beliefs. They argue for these beliefs in the new ...
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Is there an equivalent to Orientalism in Eastern scholarship of the West?
Orientalism (1978) is a book by Edward Said that established the concept of "orientalism", which refers to the Western depiction of aspects in the Eastern world.
Is there an equivalent to ...
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Why is Seamus Heaney's "The Cure at Troy" so often quoted in political contexts?
The Cure at Troy is Seamus Heaney's translation and adaptation of Sophocles's Philoctetes set during the Trojan War. It seems to be very often quoted by politicians: most recently by British prime ...
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Is The Owl Service sexist in its negative portrayals of women?
Alan Garner's novel The Owl Service has a small cast of characters, three of whom are female. On reflection, all three appear to be portrayed in a rather negative light.
Alison is something of a ...
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Was Selma Lagerlöf a Nazi supporter?
While reading about Selma Lagerlöf online, I was somewhat surprised to learn the following fact:
At the start of World War II, she sent her Nobel Prize medal and gold medal from the Swedish Academy ...
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Book involving the president-elect dying in a horse accident and electoral college shenanigans
I think I read this one in early 2000. It was a novel length hardback, I think with a white cover. The President-Elect has won the election and is riding a horse in some parade when it gets spooked. ...
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What point is the end of The Owl Service trying to make?
Pretty spoiler heavy question since it involves the book's end.
Alan Garner's YA novel The Owl Service sees three characters roughly re-enacting a tragic love triangle from Welsh myth.
Alison, the ...
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Quote about renouncing power over another and hoping they will do the same back
I'm trying to track down a quote that, through a series of examples, expresses the author's desire to renounce any power they may have over someone else (possibly the reader), each followed by their ...
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What does Chapter XLVIII in Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, Book I, mean?
I don't understand what Book I Chapter 48 of Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy is trying to convey:
Chapter XLVIII
He who would not have an Office bestowed on some worthless or wicked Person, should ...
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Has the Brexit referendum had a negative impact on sales of foreign-language literature in the UK?
In July 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU in the (in)famous Brexit referendum. The Guardian recently reported that "British 'linguaphobia' has deepened since Brexit vote, say experts" (28 ...
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Is "The American Claimant" a veiled take on "The Indian Question"?
Mark Twain's 1892 novel The American Claimant was written very soon after the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890), which was basically revenge for the 1876 Battle of Greasy Grass ("Little Big Horn"). This ...
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Did Eric Flint comment on how his political views reflected in his writing, especially 1632 series?
Eric Flint is fairly outspoken about his political views (in bumper sticker terms, he's a self-proclaimed socialist, although - as is the case with most real humans - it's a bit more nuanced than that ...
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Source of alleged San Ignacio of Lyola quote: ‘In a besieged city, all dissent is treason.’
I'm trying to find the source of the quote in the title.
This Guardian article from 2021 quotes ‘Hal Klepak, professor emeritus of history and strategy at the Royal Military College of Canada’ as ...
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Is "The Good Work" by Theodore L Thomas a commentary on any kind of real-world society?
While skimming through answered story-identification questions on another SE site to look for good short stories to read, I came across "The Good Work", written in 1959 by the American author Theodore ...
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Why did Hemingway include the following in his book, the Moveable Feast?
Towards the end of his book, The Moveable Feast, about his times as an expatriate American in Paris, he quotes a conversation he overhears in an Inn, somewhere in the Swiss Alps which he is visiting ...
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Are political dystopias becoming less popular?
After reading Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four I was looking for more dystopias that are similar to it. But the trouble is, most of them are becoming more sci-fi based rather than politically based.
Don'...
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What is the earliest reference to or depiction of a police state in English literature?
In the article Henry VIII: Henry the horrible (The Independent, 12 October 2003), Marcus Tanner wrote (emphasis added),
The man now remembered as the godfather of the Anglican church continued ...
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