Table of Contents

Introduction: Literary Activism, Clarity and Confusion.- Chapter 1: “For Love of Clarity”: Émile Zola, Practice, and the Political Potential of Realistic Literature.- Chapter 2: Grounds for Confusion: Nietzsche, Theory, and the Political Potential of Anti-Realism.- Chapter 3: Between Theory and Practice: Matthew Arnold, Thomas Mann, Julien Benda, and the Purpose of the Intellectual.- Chapter 4: “Different Kinds of Clarity”: Science, Sense, and Utilitarian Realism in Bertolt Brecht.- Chapter 5: Pressing Engagement: Jean-Paul Sartre and the Aesthetic Problem of the Political.- Chapter 6: An Other Engagement: Simone de Beauvoir and the Ethical Problem of the Political.- Conclusion: Contemporary Engagements with Clarity and Confusion.- Works Cited.

About the Author

Geoffrey A. Baker is Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS College, Singapore. He is the author of Realism’s Empire, in addition to articles on political aesthetics, realism, and other topics.