I don’t believe it is necessary for a writer to write about
the social or political problems of their time. I think it is inevitable.
Most writers take a huge amount of influence for their works
from their surroundings at the time, even if the piece they are writing is set
in a past or futuristic setting, it will most likely contain influences from present
day issues. Emily Dickinson for example,
wrote a number of poems on the civil war.
Dickinson herself was not directly affected by the war. At the time she
was shut away in her room. She only observed the effects and devastation from the
war from various newspapers which were brought to her by family members, and from what she could
see from the view out of her window.
In my opinion, without the influence of social and political
issues of the time a writer’s creativity will be very limited, being amongst
strong opinions that they may or may not agree with will feed an artist’s
imagination.
Social and political issues offer something that a reader
can relate to, even if the writer is not directly talking about specific
issues from current events, by having underlying similarities the writer is able to
give something that the reader can connect with, which is something all writers
strive to do.
Interesting points about Emily Dickinson here and I agree, it is almost impossible to write with out being influenced from your surroundings. :)
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Even if an author isn't trying to write about the issues of the time, they somehow find a way into the work.
ReplyDeleteGood work, i do agree it is inevitable that writers include issues of their time into their writing. You could add a little more theory to back this up but otherwise your points are pretty good :)
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