Fiction produced is very often a reaction to something the author sees as a problem in one way or another. In some societies, it is not safe to directly criticize what is going on, and in others it just may be more effective to do it in an oblique way. Think of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. There were many people opposed to Joe McCarthy's politics of guilt by nebulous association, but Miller managed to make his opposition crystal clear by comparing it to the Salem witch trials. The relationship is not always to some direct event--Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" condemns a more general attitude of "we do it this way because we always have...we don't need to think about it." Animal Farm and 1984 take on big issues of political/governmental systems, as does Fahrenheit 451.
Sometimes it is more effective to be indirect in your criticisms. In some...
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societies, it is also much safer. Look at what happened to Salman Rushdie when he published a work of fiction.
What is the relationship between fiction and sociopolitical conditions?
What a thought-provoking question!
Aside from the many metaphysical novels such as Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick," and exitstential works such as Albert Camus's "The Stranger" so many works of fiction are mainly commentaries on the socio-political conditions. Indeed, in countries in which freedom of expression was not existent, writers often cloaked their socio-political ideologies in a work of fiction. As you may know, Fyodor Dostovesky, the great Russian writer, was freed only a day before his scheduled execution in Russia. Voltaire of France was banished from his country for his writings (among other works, his "Candide" caused a furor as it parodies the popular philosophy of optimism). Jonathan Swift of Ireland raised the ire of the ruling British with his "Modest Proposal." And, in his time, Charles Dickens--as did his French contemporary Victor Hugo in France--brought to the attention of the world the plight of the poor in the social "prison" of Victorian England.
One salient example of a novel that had a tremendous socio-political impact in the United States is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which exposed the horrid working conditions of the workers in Chicago's stockyards. As a result of the publication of this novel, changes were effected. The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was enacted after so many readers were outraged at the unsanitary conditions under which meat was prepared. Another noteworthy novel with a monumental socio-political impact is Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," an anti-slavery took the world by storm as she wrote her protest-novel about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Clearly, both Sinclair's and Stowe's novels are testimonies of man's inhumanity to man.
One of America's most socio-political writers is the twentieth century socialist novelist, John Steinbeck. His "Of Mice and Men' is set in Depression-Era 1930s as his magnum opus, "The Grapes of Wrath," both of which protray the disenfranchised Okies; another of his novels protests the 1942 and 1943 Zoot Zuit Race Riots of the Los Angeles. Steinbeck's "A Wayward Bus" expresses his disillusionment in the aftermath of World War II.
And, the list goes on....
Understanding the socio political conditions of an author's time period provides valuable insights into the motivations and influences of the writers works. It is important to recognize the external forces active in the author's daily life in order to more accurately evaluate the thematic and symbolic devices used in the work.
Clearly works of literature are based in a specific cultural and time framework, so in analysis of works of literature we are unable to separate study of that particular time period with the work itself in our analysis. What is of particular interest to me is the way that fiction can try to change the socio-cultural context in which it is based. These works of social protest are very powerful and can be seen to have served to change society in a number of key examples.
You can see this trend of social protest novels beginning even in the book that was widely accepted as the first English novel, Pamela, by Samuel Richardson, which amongst other things pointed out various evils in 18th Century English society. Two other social protest novels that had a big impact on society were Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Both of these depicted the horrible conditions of a group of people; firstly American sailors and their living and working conditions and secondly immigrants in the US and the terrible conditions of the American meat-packing industry at the start of the 20th Century. Both books stunned their readers and resulted in a change of legislation: the rights of American seamen were strengthened and Roosevelt ordered an investigation into the meat-packing industry that resulted in the Pure-Food Laws being passed in 1906.
Other examples you might want to look at are the novels of Dickens and their role in exposing the true poverty of the urban poor in London, and novels such as Cry, Beloved Country and The Grapes of Wrath, to name but a few.