Elinor Taylor on Ralph Fox and the Communist Theory of the Novel seminar

Wednesday 16 November, 17.15-19.00
Cayley Room, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Imperialism, Uneven Development and the Communist Theory of the Novel: The Case of Ralph Fox
Elinor Taylor (University of Westminster)

This paper discusses the British communist, journalist, novelist, literary critic and anti-fascist Ralph Fox (1900-1936). It will attempt to map the relationships between Fox’s work as a novelist and theorist of the novel, on the one hand, and his writings on the historical development of capitalism, the relationships between capitalism, imperialism and fascism, and the prospects for global revolutionary transformation in the wake of the Russian Revolution, on the other. Tracing Fox’s engagement with these interlocking questions over his working life,  from his years in Moscow in the 1920s, through Britain in the 1930s, and finally to his death in the Spanish Civil War, the paper tries to extend existing accounts of interplay between communist history, the novel and literary theory.