Wiktionary
n. 1 The expression of one's point of view or feelings towards society, usually through literature. 2 A work of this kind.
Wikipedia
Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace about a given problem and appealing to people's sense of justice. Social commentary can be practiced through all forms of communication, from printed form, to conversations to computerized communication.
Two examples of strong and bitter social commentary are the writings of Jonathan Swift and Martin Luther. Swift exposed and decried the appalling poverty in Ireland at the time, which was viewed as the fault of the British government. Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation against practices of the Catholic Church. Examples of social commentators from the lower social strata are Charles Dickens and Will Rogers.
Usage examples of "social commentary".
Although very few mysteries provide a good vehicle for social commentary or important observations on the human condition, they do make for fine escape literature, and they are always being published.
The sales rep tells me that my novels are political in the sense that all social commentary is political.
For a book set not much further (perhaps another decade or two) in the future than Heavy Weather or Mother of Storms, Half the Day Is Night remains oddly, almost willfully, devoid of the sort of social commentary that characterizes Barnes's, Womack's, and Sterling's novels.
The demand from network television for a quick, witty spray of set-up-punch-line fare seemed designed, however insidiously, to abbreviate anything approaching actual social commentary.
The strip gave her an arena for her own brand of social commentary.
Sinclair's writings had always harbored social commentary, not to mention social crusades.
Better to just do her job and leave the social commentary to somebody else, someone polished, like Glemoor.
His opus THE LAST FANDANGO (privately mimeographed) is a classic of social commentary, and it revolutionized the heretofore timid accounts of fan politics and convention activities.
The novel was full of social commentary, religious threads, a large cast of characters, and (yes) a wheels-within-wheels plot.