Who’s afraid of the political novel? An introduction

Our purpose in this introduction and in the research project The Cartography of the Political Novel (Caponeu), to which this collection belongs, is not to introduce a new category that complements – or opposes – other established genre designations such as the engaged novel or the thesis novel. Rather, it is about examining the relevance of the term ‘political novel’ anew. Why do we consider it important, both as a tentative genre and as a politically productive and dynamic social phenomenon, both in its past, its present and – predictably – in its future? While recognising the current scholarly interest in the inherently political nature of all writing, we argue that certain novels, unlike many others, benefit from being more directly designated as political novels.