Antifascist Narrative and the Politics of Optimism.

This essay examines the structure and history of U.S. antifascist literary narrative, focusing on its democratic intervention and sustained optimism amid threats to democracy since the 1930s. It highlights a subgenre called the "blackshirt narrative," which depicts radical right-wing movements before they seize state power, illustrated through two largely forgotten late-1930s works: James T. Farrell's *Tommy Gallagher's Crusade* and William Thomas Smith's *The Black Stockings*. The essay situates antifascist narratives as politically specific responses to fascism as an extreme right-wing phenomenon emerging from contradictions within capitalist liberalism, emphasizing that defeating fascism requires expanding democracy beyond the existing liberal order. Both novels portray fascists as ultimately defeated, reinforcing hope and the necessity of active resistance, including physical confrontation, to preserve and expand democratic society.