Social poetry is
poetry which performs a
social function
Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability".
This approach looks at society through a macro-level o ...
or contains a level of
social commentary. The term seems to have first appeared as a translation from the original Spanish
Poesia Socíal, used to describe the post-
Spanish-civil-war poetry movement of the 1950s and 60s (including poets such as
Blas de Otero
Blas de Otero (15 March 191629 June 1979) was a Spanish people, Spanish poet, associated with the Social poetry movementDebicki, Andrew P''Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Modernity and Beyond'', p. 74.University Press of Kentucky, 1994. ...
). Later, José Eduardo Limón, for example, has used it to describe Mexican-American
Chicano poetry in
Texas during the same period. Elsewhere, others have used the term to describe English-language poets such as
W.H. Auden and
George Bernard Shaw.
Boston University has recently offered courses in “the social poetry of Central America.”
Development
More recently, John Stubley has made use of the term as part of the Centre for Social Poetry. Stubley expands the idea to include what
Owen Barfield describes as poetic “effect” – which distinguishes between the poetic ''form'' of words on a piece of paper, and the poetic ''effect'' of a “felt change of consciousness”.
Stubley explores this poetic effect or experience as it occurs between human beings (socio-poetic experience), together with all that they can turn their minds and hands to in relation to the organisation (i.e., "poeticisation"
) of
social life
''Social Life'' is the second studio album by the American indie rock band Koufax. The song "Bright Side" was featured in an episode of the adult animated sitcom '' Clone High''.
Background
Unlike the previous album “''Social Life''”was ...
.
He attempts to create spaces that give expression to
imaginations of
objective realities at work within the human and
social organisms, thereby opening up the way to
individual
An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...
and
social transformation.
References
{{Reflist
Genres of poetry
Sociological terminology