Hi All,
I've noticed that a lot of my writing seems to follow a pattern of the social novel. I usually hate Wikipedia, but it actually has a good explanation of what the social novel is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_novel
I gravitate towards writing fiction that isn't quite political but touches on social issues. For example, I write a lot about women and class, though not so much in a political sense. That is, the stories are more about personal journeys against injustice. For example, I just finished a novel that includes issues of women relying on their brain rather than their beauty and also has a situation where a large company is not treating it's factory workers with decency (though there's no uprising or protest of any kind).
It got me thinking a little bit. From the research I've done, it seems as if the social novel is something that belongs to the past, especially the 19th/early 20th century. Here's a very interesting, if not alarming, article about how one writer thinks that the social novel is dead except in crime fiction:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/31/crime-novels.html
I'd love to know if there are others who feel they touch on current social issues in their fiction to and how they do it. I'm not so much talking about political action or political issues (that is, changing legislation, putting down government, etc) but more about people and everyday injustices. Are there also any writers that you know of who do this too? Or am I just writing in a dying genre?
Djuna
I've noticed that a lot of my writing seems to follow a pattern of the social novel. I usually hate Wikipedia, but it actually has a good explanation of what the social novel is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_novel
I gravitate towards writing fiction that isn't quite political but touches on social issues. For example, I write a lot about women and class, though not so much in a political sense. That is, the stories are more about personal journeys against injustice. For example, I just finished a novel that includes issues of women relying on their brain rather than their beauty and also has a situation where a large company is not treating it's factory workers with decency (though there's no uprising or protest of any kind).
It got me thinking a little bit. From the research I've done, it seems as if the social novel is something that belongs to the past, especially the 19th/early 20th century. Here's a very interesting, if not alarming, article about how one writer thinks that the social novel is dead except in crime fiction:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/31/crime-novels.html
I'd love to know if there are others who feel they touch on current social issues in their fiction to and how they do it. I'm not so much talking about political action or political issues (that is, changing legislation, putting down government, etc) but more about people and everyday injustices. Are there also any writers that you know of who do this too? Or am I just writing in a dying genre?
Djuna