Friday, February 27, 2009
Does writing have the power to enact social change?
I think that writing could have the possibility to enact social change depending on your audience and style of writing. If you are writing fictional works for adults, chances are nothing in society will change from it. If you are writing for children, your writings might influence their entire lives and cause them to make different decisions and altercations along their lives. If your writing informational or persuasive pieces, your works may be successful in collecting believers and results of your writing may vary. Also, your position in society can affect how much it influences people because if you are a governor or a mayor, people will have more faith in what your discussing than if you are a carpenter or a plumber. In conclusion, good writing can influence many things if it hits the right spot in people.
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Joe, you make some valid claims about the ability/inability of writing to enact change, and I wonder if some the barriers that you list like genre (when you mention adult fiction) and social status might be or might already have been challenged by writers.
ReplyDeleteYou might consider Jordan for instance. Does the fact that she writes poetry affect her ability to enact change? How about popular fiction series like Harry Potter and Twilight? It might be interesting to consider whether they and other contemporary fictions have had effects on society.