"The Citizen's Voice expounds the key features of the "good citizen" as expressed by eight literary characters, Hans Castorp (Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain). Joseph D. (Franz Kafka's The Trial), John the Savage (Aldous Huxley's Brave New World), Winston Smith (George Orwell's 1984), Ralph (William Golding's Lord of the Flies), Meursaust (Albert Camus' The Stranger), Ida Ramundo (Elsa Morante's History), and Chauncey Gardiner (Jerzy Kosinski's Being There)." "Keren observes these characters as they struggle through the world wars, the rise and fall of totalitarianism, the Holocaust, the development of the atomic bomb, de-colonization, the Cold War, and globalization." "As both participants in and victims of the twentieth century's ideological, technological and organization of projects, these characters reflect on their experiences; and Keren explores how the nature of then self-reflection advanced the notion of civil society in a global scale." "The Citizen's Voice makes a refreshing contribution to civil society theory and represents a pioneering effect to cross the boundaries between politics, literature, and culture."--BOOK JACKET.