Literature and social innovation

Authors

Paul Sharrad, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

34100

Publication Details

Sharrad, P. (2010). Literature and social innovation. In H. Yeatman (Eds.), The SInet 2010 eBook (Proceedings of the SInet 2009 Conference) (pp. 62-69). Wollongong: Social Innovation Network (SInet), University of Wollongong.

Abstract

This article considers the nature of literature’s connection to the production of social change. It argues that while admitting the theoretical understandings of literary texts as meaningful within formal and linguistic systems, at a level removed from the social real, writing – perhaps most notably, popular and post-colonial rather than canonical writing – can induce imaginative and emotional shifts that facilitate social action and reform.