Is It Necessary For A Writer To Write About The Social Or Political Events Of Their Time?

As writers we can write without limitations, whether we know it or not. As long as we can find some way to dictate our thoughts then are we are met with no impediments or barriers to censor our work. We are free to say anything we want, whether it offends or pleases our readers but the question of whether we should implement the social and political ideology in to our work is a difficult question to answer.

According to Neil McCaw, New Historicism suggests that "a literary text should not be studied in isolation..." and that it should be "placed specifically within it's own historical context and viewed as a particular product of its era, location and circumstances." I think that regardless of whether we do that as readers, writers unconsciously include ideologies and remnants of their life at the time within their work. For example, Emily Dickinson lived in isolation for a period of time and the decision for her work to remain private suggests more then introversion. The rumours of her feelings towards her sister-in-law and her position as a forward thinking woman in the 19th century suggest that, on some level, she felt the world wasn't ready for her. Thus we gain a deeper understanding of her work through her biography, and also the social and political conventions that were the norm at the time. Knowing this affects our reading of the text.

I think the question of whether it is necessary for us to write about the social/political conventions is irrelevant; Unconsciously, we include them within our work. It is the reader who ultimately decides whether our work is reflective of the time we lived in and what impact it has had on our writing.