Research Information System
II - INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON LITERATURE, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE, Ankara, Turkey, 9 - 10 June 2023, pp.257-258
John Steinbeck, a writer with a journalist background and journalist-turned-novelist,
witnessed the Great Depression, World Wars, and many other momentous events and
incorporated national and international events into his worldwide-known novels as a
journalist. Along with his contemporaries, Steinbeck occupies a prominent place among the
writers of the Lost Generation due to the environment and events he was exposed to. He was
frequently subjected to political epithets during his lifetime. His writings, which are often
characterized as dissident because they mainly deal with society and social issues, are not
only literary works but also literary works that allow us to read the period. Steinbeck's The
Grapes of Wrath, one of the most important works of the Great Depression period, is a work
that can be read in many different ways beyond being a tragic novel. In this respect, The
Grapes of Wrath is one of the novels that most clearly describes the Great Depression period
in which historical events are interspersed between the lines. This novel can be characterized
not only as a work of fiction but also as a historical record. It is a narrative that can be read
with the new historicist approach that opposes the old historical understanding and examines
historical narratives in literature. The fact that the work is a record of the period also allows it
to be analyzed and read in the context of New Historicism. In this study, this novel, which has
critical clues, especially at the point of comprehending the political environment of the period,
has been discussed from this aspect. The work has been tried to be read from a new historicist
perspective.