Reaching the Public via Literary Commitment: The Development of a Revolutionary Literature in the Writings of Paul Nizan

Paul Nizan's conception of revolutionary literature was predicated on the idea that literature could be an important vehicle for the transmission of Marxist ideological values to the left-wing readership of the day. Literary writing was by no means simply a means to a political end for Nizan however. Unlike socialist realist art, the success of revolutionary literature depended on the writer possessing a broad knowledge of literary tradition, form and technique.