Political Writing

“In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues....” 
George Orwell

Quoting Orwell when discussing the issue of political writing is a bit of a cliché, given how overtly political his fiction is, Animal Farm and 1984 being the most famous examples. Although his opinion here is that writing is inherently political, his own work is perhaps a bad example; it isn't just fiction that happens to have political references, it is built around political statements. For Orwell's theory to be applicable, I think it's important to distinguish between these two types of 'political writing'. 

In general, fiction will reflect the conscious and unconscious views of its author, but this shouldn't always be used as the main perspective to analyse writing from. More balanced criticism would also consider the artistic merit of writing and how successful it is as a form of entertainment and escapism for the reader. I certainly don't think that a writer should feel any pressure to include political and social issues in their work. 

On the other hand, writing that is intentionally political, like Orwell's, also has an important place in the world of writing, and serves different purposes. Cheever's writing is not exactly political, but it is full of social commentary. In particular, The Swimmer's melancholy picture of suburbia, and The Enormous Radio's discussion of the paranoia and jealousy of American city life are indicative of his views. Many of his stories contain an aspect of this disillusioned criticism of the 'American Dream'.

I'll end this post with Turkish author Elif Shafak's TED talk on political writing, which may be of interest.