Literature and Social Justice
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“Literature has been the salvation of the damned; literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair, and can perhaps...save the world.” -John Cheever
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1850), an anti-slavery manifesto, he (allegedly) claimed that she was the little woman who started the great Civil War. While this story may be apocryphal, it underscores a major assumption in American literature: that literature has the potential to enact concrete social change.
As American authors were starting their own unique literary tradition, it was premised on the idea that they could use their words to work for a more just society. The American literary culture started gaining the respect of the rest of the world in the mid-nineteenth century, also commonly referred to as the age of reform. As Hawthorne and Melville wrote their literary masterpieces, the country was ravaged by the inhumanity of chattel slavery, Native Americans were killed en masse and driven off their land, and women chafed under a legal system that didn’t recognize them as citizens. Abolitionists and suffragists joined other crusaders interested in temperance, prison, and education reform, and fiction writers assumed the mantle with their work. Reading was the primary form of entertainment and edification in the nineteenth century, and authors used their power to try to create a more just society.
And, at least partially, it worked. Harriet Jacobs’ fictionalized narrative of her life in slavery, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), showed her white, Northern audience a world they had never been exposed to before and mobilized many to join the abolitionist movement. T.S. Arthur’s Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There (1854), though outlandishly humorous to a 21st century audience, was a temperance reform novel nearly a popular as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and made concrete the dire results of alcoholism on women and children, inspiring many to swear off drinking forever. Rebecca Harding Davis’ “Life in the Iron-Mills" (1861) was an early call for a labor reform that would culminate in late 19th Century union work. These stories, among countless others, were premised on the fact that fiction could enlighten readers to take concrete action to make the world a better place.
Today, the extension of these ethical issues and the link between art and justice grows murkier, but even more important to consider. Authors still use their pens (keyboards?) to bring attention to pressing social issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, addiction, and myriad other problems facing society. Using their words as a weapon and a balm, they raise awareness about social problems as the first step for solving them.
That being said, the actual impact of literature today is hard to measure and has the potential to give pause to those truly invested in social reform. Reading is no longer the primary form of entertainment and enlightenment for all Americans. Readers are inundated with information and activists often pick other forms of technology to share their ideas. The act of creating art (and the leisure time to read it) can also be viewed as inherently privileged. If you consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, literature is floating dreamlike at the top of the pyramid. Those struggling for survival have little time to create or appreciate fiction. Likewise, as novelist Elizabeth Stuart Phelps once claimed, some authors feel like they must be a little color blind to misery for beauty’s sake. Modern writers and readers both have to deal with the tension between art and action. How can anyone invested in fixing the grave social inequalities in the 21st century afford the time to read about poverty, racism, sexism, etc. instead of actually working for equality? How can authors create art when faced with the tragedies surrounding them, and who reads their work? Are artists invested in social change just preaching to the choir? What’s more important, reading Sherman Alexie’s representation of homelessness in “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem,” or doing all you can to get people off the streets?
These are questions readers must answer for themselves. Nonetheless, the old labor union call to action, “hearts starve as well as bodies/give us bread, but give us roses” serves as a useful reminder to those who are overwhelmed with the stark reality of inequality in the 21st century but still invested in the power of literature to fight it. People need equality, but also art and beauty, and literature has the power to meet this very real need. Likewise, while it can be trickier to see the material impact of literature today, authors still have the ability to move their readers to see the world beyond their own neighborhood and think critically about their moral obligation to society.
As you are reading literature concerned with creating social change, here are some key ideas to consider:
- Identify the issue - What is the author trying to say about society in the text? Is he or she trying to raise awareness about a specific social issue? Does the author want the reader to take some kind of action after reading the work?
- Read about the historical context and the author - The historical moment when a text is written informs the message and purpose, even if the story is set in another time. It can also be important to consider the author’s social location, or identity. Authors can certainly write about events or ideas outside of their own experiences (and many do. It’s creative writing!) That being said, a writer with firsthand experience with the social issue has some implicit credibility.
- Reflect on own response to the literature and think about what action you could take in your own community - Once you are aware of social injustice, it can be hard to stay silent. The best literature concerned with equality encourages readers to take action in their own communities. If you keep thinking about a topic raised in a short story, it might be worth taking some time to research ways you can get involved with an issue. Maybe you will choose to volunteer at a nonprofit, or even just speak out the next time you hear an inappropriate comment or joke. Maybe the next great short story about combating social injustice will be your own.
Writing for social change certainly extends beyond the American literary tradition, as authors throughout the world work to create a more equitable society. In this anthology, you’ll see many short stories that raise awareness about problems in society and ask readers to form their own solutions. At the same time, every anthology recognizes the immeasurable loss of the silenced voices unable to use their experiences to share their own stories. For every Harriet Jacobs, there were a million enslaved women who were never given a pen. Even as Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah investigates racial profiling in Friday Black (2018), another young Black male falls victim to it. Nico Walker can weave his experiences with heroin into fiction in Cherry (2018), but he can’t speak for all the thousands dying on the street. The responsibility of each author, and reader, is to make sure these deaths are not in vain.