Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of a handful of books on Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky; most recently she co-edited with David Deavel Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West. She is a Visiting Alcuin Fellow committed to the renewal of classical education. Find her online at www.jessicahootenwilson.com or follow her on Twitter @HootenWilson.
Overview
Too loosely is the word "Marxist" used to insult a conflicting viewpoint. When we conscript people to a "side" and reduce them with a label, we participate in the same silencing and censoring that we hope to fight against. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wisely refused to choose a side in American politics. While the Russian dissident did battle the unjust control of the Soviets in his country, he chose the most powerful of weapons--novels. He argued for the convincingness of art to force "even an opposing heart to surrender." Through fiction, Solzhenitsyn provides a way to love our so-called enemies, encourage conversation rather than silencing, and, even when all appears despairing, open the door to hope.
