Sample content Week 1 DQ 2 Literature and the Industrial Revolution Many artists and writers in the 19th century hoped that their work would inspire politicians and others to make lasting changes that would improve living and working conditions for people. These writers were often called “social critics” and their writing “social criticism” because one of its intents was to criticize society. To what extent are art and literature political? Why do you think that many of the works of 19th-century writers, including Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, are still popular today? The level that art and literature is political is noteworthy because art and literature indicates the outlook of the nation and circumstances that on multiple occasions’ alert political heads. Art and literature provides the nation an unambiguous understanding of what is going on, lacking personal knowledge of the situation he/