Literature reflects and influences society (Albrecht, 1954). Literature can articulate uncomfortable truths of systemic injustice, reveal to the audience systems that privilege some and oppress others, and be a catalyst for empathy. The definition of ‘literature’ is contested and typically conjures up ideas of lengthy tomes (Meyer, 1997). The media of modern day ‘literature’ has moved beyond text to include oral literature (e.g., films), short stories, graphic novels (e.g., comic books) and a wide variety of electronic literature (see Gaskin, 2013; Meyer, 1997; Heckman and O’Sullivan 2017).
This literary essay analyses focuses on race relations explored in Theordore Melfi’s 2016 film Hidden Figures and Melissa Lucashenko’s 2016 short story Dreamers. The purpose of this literary analysis is to extract and foreground the powerful messages conveyed in each story about identities, places, ideologies and cultural assumptions. Narratives in films and short stories can communicate systemic injustice in compelling ways and may serve as an important educational tool. It is hoped that social marketers find inspiration in literary exposés such as this to enhance their social justice storytelling. Indeed, literary analysis may be considered as a new tool for the social marketers toolkit.