In his 1934 essay The Author as Producer Walter
Benjamin insists that the author must write with a
political tendency in order to take a stand against
an impending political collapse of government,
referring to the rise of Nazi Germany and its threat
to the rights of individual citizens. Some writers
in the United States, recognizing that the American
people were adversely affected by politics on the
local and federal level, they advocated equal rights
and social justice for all Americans. In turn, these
texts were regarded as radical and closely linked to
radical leftist politics. Initially, they were
granted no place in the literary canon on the premise
that textual radicalism goes hand in hand with poor
writing; only recently have they found a place in a
newly created sub-canon. Contemporary critics argued
that socio-economic issues depicted in these texts
did not conform to the conventional standards of
aesthetic and economic values, heavily emphasizing a
link between the radical text in the United States
and the rise and fall of the communist movement
elsewhere in the world, thereby successfully
marginalizing certain authors and their texts.

Autorentext
The author teaches at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Born and educated in Germany, he completed his diploma in English and Russian studies at the University of Leipzig before moving to Alabama where he earned his Ph.D. in 20th century American literature with a focus on Gender Studies and Southern Literature.

Klappentext
In his 1934 essay "The Author as Producer" Walter Benjamin insists that the author must write with a political tendency in order to take a stand against an impending political collapse of government, referring to the rise of Nazi Germany and its threat to the rights of individual citizens. Some writers in the United States, recognizing that the American people were adversely affected by politics on the local and federal level, they advocated equal rights and social justice for all Americans. In turn, these texts were regarded as radical and closely linked to radical leftist politics. Initially, they were granted no place in the literary canon on the premise that textual radicalism goes hand in hand with poor writing; only recently have they found a place in a newly created sub-canon. Contemporary critics argued that socio-economic issues depicted in these texts did not conform to the conventional standards of aesthetic and economic values, heavily emphasizing a link between the radical text in the United States and the rise and fall of the communist movement elsewhere in the world, thereby successfully marginalizing certain authors and their texts.