Fictionalisations of American Populism : From Edward Bellamy's Utopia to Angie Thomas's Black Lives Matter Novel

• This chapter discusses three best-selling fictional novels published at key moments in the history of American populism. The first one, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887, is a famous utopia and protest novel that helped crystalize the populist movement and exerted influence on the political agenda and organization of the People’s Party in the early 1890s. The second, It Can’t Happen Here, is a realist dystopia written by Nobel Prize laureate Sinclair Lewis in 1935, in an epoch marked by the successes and failures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the rise of fascism and communism in the United States and abroad. It was also the time when the populist label had been extended to a special kind of left-wing political profile, one centered on the charismatic leader whose discourse and policies were tainted by demagoguery and authoritarianism. Huey P. Long, the colorful political boss from Louisiana, and Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest turned radio star from Detroit who spoke admiringly of Hitler and Mussolini, are prime examples of that species. The third novel is African American writer Angie Thomas’s bestselling work of young adult fiction The Hate U Give from 2017. This book dramatizes a black teenager’s trauma of witnessing the absurd killing of her friend by a white police officer and follows the protagonist’s transition from innocent bystander to antiracist rioter and protest leader. The narrative and its screen adaptation from 2018 may have played an important role in galvanizing the public opinion in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.   Reading these novels and reflecting over their relationship with populism may shed light on the perceptions and manifestations of American populism, based on two opposite approaches to the national democratic project: a view that American democracy has yet to be realized and an anti-democratic one fueled by irrational resentments. In addition, approaching the history of American populism though these novels enables one to focus less on the “supply” side of populist politics (i.e. the populist leader and the populist party), as most analysts and commentators of populism do, and more on the “demand” side of it (i.e. the people/voters’ perception of and need for populist politics and politicians). Out of the many and often contradictory definitions of populism in political science, one is selected, argued for and used throughout the essay.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Literatures (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

populism

fiction

American political history

utopia

dystopia

protest novel

Black Lives Matter

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)