DOCSLIB.ORG

The Aesthetic Diversity of American Proletarian Fiction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Aesthetic Diversity of American Proletarian Fiction University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2001 The aesthetic diversity of American proletarian fiction Walter Edwin Squire University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Squire, Walter Edwin, "The aesthetic diversity of American proletarian fiction. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2001. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6439 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Walter Edwin Squire entitled "The aesthetic diversity of American proletarian fiction." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Mary E. Papke, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Walter Squire entitled "The Aesthetic Diversity of American Proletarian Fiction." I have examined the final copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate St THE AESTHETIC DIVERSITY OF AMERICAN PROLETARIAN FICTION A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Tennessee, Knoxville Walter Squire December 2001 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many students and faculty members to whom I am grateful for their advice and suggestions. I would like to thank George Hutchinson for reading early chapters of this dissertation and Dorothy Scura for introducing me to the work of Olive Tilford Dargan. I am particularly grateful to my Dissertation Committee, Stephen Blackwell, Stan Garner, and Chuck Maland, for their guidance and support. The director of this dissertation, Mary Papke, deserves special recognition for her infinite patience, encouragement, and enthusiasm throughout this entire project. Through the generous support of the Durant da Ponte American Literature Fellowship, I was able to conduct important research at the John Dos Passos Collection at the University of Virginia Library, the Margaret I. King Library at the University of Kentucky, and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Numerous librarians at these institutions were extraordinarily helpful. I would like to thank the English Department and the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee for the purchase of the Liberator and Modem Quarterly,as these journals were essential to my research. I would also like to recognize my family and friends, and especially my mother, for the constant faith in my abilities that provided me the necessary motivation to continue when my self-confidence wavered. Finally, I owe the greatest debt to Allison. Without her love I would never have been able to complete this project. 111 ABSTRACT Almost as soon as a certain movement in early twentieth-century American literature began to be labeled "proletarian," numerous literary critics defined the genre as propagandistic, formulaic, and prescribed by a hegemonic and totalitarian American Communist Party. Recently, scholars of 1930s leftist literature have challenged previous dismissals of proletarianism by noting the diversity of participants and the complexity of individual works. Frequently, however, too much emphasis is placed upon the Communist Party, shared political and literary projects, and temporal parameters, all of which would suggest that proletarianism was an isolated phenomenon within the history of American literature. This study reveals that the major proponents of American proletarian literature portrayed the movement as the successor to progressive and radical tendencies throughout the history of American literature. Furthermore, during the 1930s proletarianism was a term open to debate, one whose advocates presented vastly different definitions. Similarly, those novelists whom contemporary critics most often labeled "proletarian," although they shared a support of labor and socialism, utilized disparate and frequently experimental techniques and held varied positions toward the Communist Party. Beginning with Vernon Louis Parrington, during the 1920s and 1930s a series of literary historians traced a lineage of radical American literature that culminated in the proletarian writers of their own era. In Jews Without Money, Michael Gold's IV gestures toward American literary heritage, as well as toward Shakespeare and modernist movements, bring to light subtleties and complexities in the novel that might otherwise be overlooked. Whereas Parrington, Gold, and others developed singular lines of descent for proletarian literature that might suggest that proletarianism is homogenous in form, the novels based upon the 1929 Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, North Carolina, reveal that proletarian novelists employed diverse techniques. Finally, John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy demonstrates a search for new literary forms that can elucidate the effects of capitalism more effectively than those genres which already exist. The innovations of U.S.A. indicate that proletarianism was not a genre but a political commitment, and the parameters of proletarianism can be extended easily to include a wide variety of literary forms and techniques. V TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: The Emergence of American Proletarian Literature: Three Hypotheses . 1 Hypothesis One: The Economic Crisis . 8 Hypothesis Two: The Influence of Theory . 13 Hypothesis Three: The Proletarian Usable Past . 42 CHAPTER 2: Michael Gold . 60 "When I think it is the tenement thinking": Towards Experiential Art ..... 62 The Class and Gender Divisions of Literary Labor . 75 Influences . 101 The Synthesis of Old and New World Ideologies ................. 121 CHAPTER 3: The Gastonia Novels . 131 Reportage and the Radicalization of the Middle Class . 136 The Historical Novel and Proletarian Class Consciousness ............ 146 Class Consciousness as Perpetual Struggle . 158 Towards a Panoramic Proletarian Novel ....................... 169 CHAPTER 4: U.S.A . ................................................ 186 Proletarianism and Modernism . 187 Dialectical History . 196 Social Autobiography . 211 CONCLUSION ........................................... 227 WORKS CITED . 235 VITA . 259 1 CHAPTER 1 The Emergence of American Proletarian Literature: Three Hypotheses Describing the proletarian novel in 1981, Stanley Aronowitz claimed: A new genre of execrable "proletarian" novels was born in the early 1930s fostered to a large extent by [Michael] Gold and the Communist party. This was the novel of struggle, in which friends and enemies were clearly defined, where the outcome was predictable if the reader understood the formula, and resembled the Communist version of pulp fiction. (Aronowitz 235) Although Aronowitz's characterization of the proletarian novel was once conventional among critics of American literature, a renewed interest in left-wing American literature of the 1930s during the past two decades, resulting in an exposure of that literature's intricacies, has rendered untenable the argument that proletarian writers perpetually reiterated a prescribed model. While a few studies of early twentieth-century American left-wing literature were published from the 1950s through the 1970s,1 beginning in the 1980s a 1 For instance, see Walter B. Rideout, The Radical Novel in the United States, 1900-1954: Some Interrelations of Literature and Society (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1956); Daniel Aaron, Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism (1961; New York: Columbia UP, 1992); James Burkhart Gilbert, Writers and Panisans: A History of Literary Radicalism in America (New York: Wiley, 1968); David Madden, ed., Proletarian Writers of the Thinies (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1968); Melvin Landsberg, Dos Passos' Path to U.S.A.: A Political Biography 2 multitude of texts have appeared which re-examine 1930s proletarianism. 2 In 1912-1936 (Boulder: Colorado Associated UP, 1972); Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper, 1973); and John Pyros, Michael Gold: Dean of American Proletarian Writers (New York: Dramatikon, 1979). In addition to these critical works, see the following anthologies of 1930s journalism, literature, and literary theory: Samuel Sillen, ed., The Mike Gold Reader: From the Writings of Michael Gold (New York: International, 1954); Jack Salzman and Barry Wallenstein, eds., Years of Protest: A Collection of American Writings of the 1930's (New York: Pegasus, 1967); Joseph North, ed., New Masses: An Anthology of the Rebel Thinies (New York: International, 1969); Daniel Aaron and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Changing Attitudes Toward Charity: the Values of Depression-Era America As Reflected in Its Literature
    CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD CHARITY: THE VALUES OF DEPRESSION-ERA AMERICA AS REFLECTED IN ITS LITERATURE By Steven M. Stary As a time of economic and political crisis, the Great Depression influenced authors who VRXJKWWRUHZULWH$PHULFD¶VXQGHUO\LQJmythology of rugged individualism into one of cooperative or communal sensibility. Through their creative use of narrative technique, the authors examined in this thesis bring their readers into close identification with the characters and events they describe. Creating connection between middle-class readers and the destitute subjects of their works, the authors promoted personal and communal solutions to the effects of the Depression rather than the impersonal and demeaning forms of charity doled out by lRFDOJRYHUQPHQWVDQGSULYDWHFKDULWLHV0HULGHO/H6XHXU¶V DUWLFOHV³:RPHQRQWKH%UHDGOLQHV´³:RPHQDUH+XQJU\´DQG³,:DV0DUFKLQJ´ DORQJZLWK7RP.URPHU¶VQRYHOWaiting for Nothing, are examined for their narrative technique as well as depictions of American attitudes toward charitable giving and toward those who receive charity. The works of Le Sueur and Kromer are shown as a SURJUHVVLRQFXOPLQDWLQJLQ-RKQ6WHLQEHFN¶VThe Grapes of Wrath later in the decade. By the end of the 1930s significant progress had been made in changing American values toward communal sensibility through the work of these authors and the economic programs of the New Deal, but the shift in attitude would not be completely accomplished or enduring. To my wife, Dierdra, who made it possible for me to keep on writing, even though it took longer than I thought it would. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Dr. Don Dingledine, my thesis advisor, who has helped to see this work to completion. It is due to his guidance this project has its good points, and entirely my fault where it does not.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Gold & Dalton Trumbo on Spartacus, Blacklist Hollywood
    LH 19_1 FInal.qxp_Left History 19.1.qxd 2015-08-28 4:01 PM Page 57 Michael Gold & Dalton Trumbo on Spartacus, Blacklist Hollywood, Howard Fast, and the Demise of American Communism 1 Henry I. MacAdam, DeVry University Howard Fast is in town, helping them carpenter a six-million dollar production of his Spartacus . It is to be one of those super-duper Cecil deMille epics, all swollen up with cos - tumes and the genuine furniture, with the slave revolution far in the background and a love tri - angle bigger than the Empire State Building huge in the foreground . Michael Gold, 30 May 1959 —— Mike Gold has made savage comments about a book he clearly knows nothing about. Then he has announced, in advance of seeing it, precisely what sort of film will be made from the book. He knows nothing about the book, nothing about the film, nothing about the screenplay or who wrote it, nothing about [how] the book was purchased . Dalton Trumbo, 2 June 1959 Introduction Of the three tumultuous years (1958-1960) needed to transform Howard Fast’s novel Spartacus into the film of the same name, 1959 was the most problematic. From the start of production in late January until the end of all but re-shoots by late December, the project itself, the careers of its creators and financiers, and the studio that sponsored it were in jeopardy a half-dozen times. Blacklist Hollywood was a scary place to make a film based on a self-published novel by a “Commie author” (Fast), and a script by a “Commie screenwriter” (Trumbo).
    [Show full text]
  • New Masses Index 1926 - 1933 New Masses Index 1934 - 1935 New Masses Index 1936
    NEW MASSES INDEX 1936 NEW MASSES INDEX NEW MASSES INDEX 1936 By Theodore F. Watts Copyright 2007 ISBN 0-9610314-0-8 Phoenix Rising 601 Dale Drive Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-4215 Cover art: William Sanderson Regarding these indexes to New Masses: These indexes to New Masses were created by Theodore Watts, who is the owner of this intellectual property under US and International copyright law. Mr. Watts has given permission to the Riazanov Library and Marxists.org to freely distribute these three publications… New Masses Index 1926 - 1933 New Masses Index 1934 - 1935 New Masses Index 1936 … in a not for profit fashion. While it is my impression Mr. Watts wishes this material he created be as widely available as possible to scholars, researchers, and the workers movement in a not for profit fashion, I would urge others seeking to re-distribute this material to first obtain his consent. This would be mandatory, especially, if one wished to distribute this material in a for sale or for profit fashion. Martin H. Goodman Director, Riazanov Library digital archive projects January 2015 Patchen, Rebecca Pitts, Philip Rahv, Genevieve Taggart, Richard Wright, and Don West. The favorite artist during this two-year span was Russell T. Limbach with more than one a week for the run. Other artists included William Gropper, John Mackey, Phil Bard, Crockett Johnson, Gardner Rea, William Sanderson, A. Redfield, Louis Lozowick, and Adolph Dehn. Other names, familiar to modem readers, abound: Bernarda Bryson and Ben Shahn, Maxwell Bodenheim, Erskine Caldwell, Edward Dahlberg, Theodore Dreiser, Ilya Ehrenberg, Sergei Eisenstein, Hanns Eisler, James T.
    [Show full text]
  • The Masses Index 1911-1917
    The Masses Index 1911-1917 1 Radical Magazines ofthe Twentieth Century Series THE MASSES INDEX 1911-1917 1911-1917 By Theodore F. Watts \ Forthcoming volumes in the "Radical Magazines ofthe Twentieth Century Series:" The Liberator (1918-1924) The New Masses (Monthly, 1926-1933) The New Masses (Weekly, 1934-1948) Foreword The handful ofyears leading up to America's entry into World War I was Socialism's glorious moment in America, its high-water mark ofenergy and promise. This pregnant moment in time was the result ofdecades of ferment, indeed more than 100 years of growing agitation to curb the excesses of American capitalism, beginning with Jefferson's warnings about the deleterious effects ofurbanized culture, and proceeding through the painful dislocation ofthe emerging industrial economy, the ex- cesses ofspeculation during the Civil War, the rise ofthe robber barons, the suppression oflabor unions, the exploitation of immigrant labor, through to the exposes ofthe muckrakers. By the decade ofthe ' teens, the evils ofcapitalism were widely acknowledged, even by champions ofthe system. Socialism became capitalism's logical alternative and the rallying point for the disenchanted. It was, of course, merely a vision, largely untested. But that is exactly why the socialist movement was so formidable. The artists and writers of the Masses didn't need to defend socialism when Rockefeller's henchmen were gunning down mine workers and their families in Ludlow, Colorado. Eventually, the American socialist movement would shatter on the rocks ofthe Russian revolution, when it was finally confronted with the reality ofa socialist state, but that story comes later, after the Masses was run from the stage.
    [Show full text]
  • Sponsors of Writing and Workersâ•Ž Education in the 1930S
    Community Literacy Journal Volume 11 Issue 1 Fall, Special Issue: Building Engaged Article 3 Infrastructure Fall 2016 Write. Persist. Struggle: Sponsors of Writing and Workers’ Education in the 1930s Deborah Mutnick Dr. Long Island University - Brooklyn Campus, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/communityliteracy Recommended Citation Mutnick, Deborah. “Write. Persist. Struggle: Sponsors of Writing and Workers’ Education in the 1930s.” Community Literacy Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, 2016, pp. 10–21, doi:10.25148/clj.11.1.009245. This work is brought to you for free and open access by FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Community Literacy Journal by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. community literacy journal Write. Persist. Struggle: Sponsors of Writing and Workers’ Education in the 1930s Deborah Mutnick Organizations like the John Reed Clubs and the WPA Federal Writers’ Project, as well as publications like The New Masses can be seen as “literacy sponsors” of the U.S. literary left in the 1930s, particularly the young, the working class, and African American writers. The vibrant, inclusionary, activist, literary culture of that era reflected a surge of revolutionary ideas and activity that seized the imagination of a generation of writers and artists, including rhetoricians like Kenneth Burke. Here I argue that this history has relevance for contemporary community writing projects, which collectively lack the political cohesiveness and power of the national and international movements that sponsored the 1930s literary left but may anticipate another global period of struggle for democracy in which writers and artists can play a significant role.
    [Show full text]
  • Working-Class Representation As a Literary and Political Practice from the General Strike to the Winter of Discontent
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of East Anglia digital repository Representing revolt: working-class representation as a literary and political practice from the General Strike to the Winter of Discontent Matti Ron PhD English Literature University of East Anglia School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing August 2020 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract Though the dual sense of representation—as an issue of both aesthetic or organisational forms—has long been noted within Marxist literary criticism and political theory, these differing uses of the term have generally been considered to be little more than semantically related. This thesis, then, seeks to address this gap in the discourse by looking at working- class representation as both a literary and political practice to show that their relationship is not just one of being merely similar or analogous, but rather that they are structurally homologous. To demonstrate this point, this thesis will perform close readings of clusters of texts to chart the development of working-class fiction between two high-points of class struggle in Britain—the 1926 General Strike and the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent—with the intention
    [Show full text]
  • Proletarian Literature of 1920S and 1930S Colonial Korea
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Mass Politics and Visual Culture: Proletarian Literature of 1920s and 1930s Colonial Korea A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Kimberly Mee Chung Committee in charge: Professor Jin-kyung Lee, Co-Chair Professor Lisa Yoneyama, Co-Chair Professor John D. Blanco Professor Takashi Fujitani Professor Todd Henry Professor Lisa Lowe 2011 Copyright Kimberly Chung, 2011 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Kimberly Chung is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2011 iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, for their love and support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ………………………………………….….…..iii Dedication………………………………………………………iv Table of Contents …………….……………………………….. v List of Figures..………….……………………………………..vi Acknowledgements …….……………………………………...vii Vita………………….…………………………….…….………ix Abstract ...……….……………………………………….….......x I. Introduction…………....………………………………………....1 II. Politics of the Body: Realism, Sensationalism and the Abject in “New Tendency Literature” (1924-1927) ..................................24 III. The Proletarian Body in Visual Culture……...………………...61 IV. The Liminal Spaces of Discourse…………..............................104 V. From Artist to Soldier of Culture: The Case of Pak Yŏnghŭi………….……………………………………………143 VI. Conclusion…..…………………………….…………………..177 VII. Works Cited……………………...…………………………….184
    [Show full text]
  • NEW MASSES Would Like to T Pose a Question at This Moment of Discussion Over the Outcome of the Reich- New Masses Stag Fire Trial: What Do You, Messrs
    January 2, 1934 TheGovernor's Committee of Forty- · skies, so that there may be more guns vention ... into a unity congress of the four, appointed to investigate educa- and more battleships. , American student movement." Students tion in New York, reports that "Scien- here and abroad , will await ·with intense tific studies show that increasing the size S we go to press, three important interest the outcome of the W ashington of class registers does not necessarily de- . A student conventions are in session conventions. crease efficiency." Though small classes in Washington. The National Students and the kindergarten rank among the League, after two years of vigorous HE first John Reed Club of Revo- greatest advances in modern education, leadership in campus struggles through- T lutionary Artists and Writers in Dr. Paul .R. Mort, in his report to the out the country, is convened with the this country was organized in New York Governor of New Jersey, also advo- purpose of coordinating its activities to in 1929, just about the time of the great cates increasing the size of classes. Fur- facilitate work among Negro students, crash. Since then about thirty John thermore, he recommends what amounts particularly in the south, and to find Reed Clubs have sprung up in the vari- practically, to wiping out the kinder concrete ways of working in unity with ous sections of the United States. A gartens. The New York committee was · the advanced guard of the working number of these clubs have launched or heavily packed with representative 's of class. The League for Industrial De- are about to launch their own publica- big business, but prominent educators mocracy, reduced by vacillation and op- tions-New Force in Detroit, Leftward .also participated.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Julius Lobo DISSERTATION Final
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts DOCUMENTARY POETRY AND AMERICAN MODERNISM FROM THE DEPRESSION TO WORLD WAR 2 A Dissertation in English by Julius Lobo © 2011 Julius Lobo Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 ii The dissertation of Julius Lobo was reviewed and approved* by the following: Robin Schulze Head of the Department of English Professor of English Dissertation Co-Adviser Mark Morrisson Director of Graduate Studies Professor of English and of Science, Technology, and Society Dissertation Co-Adviser Aldon Nielsen Kelly Professor of American Literature Jeffrey T. Nealon Liberal Arts Research Professor of English John Marsh Assistant Professor of English Adam Rome Associate Professor of History *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii Abstract This dissertation argues that American modernist poets sought out and incorporated innovations from documentary film, photography, and traditions of testimonial witness in an effort to create poetry that could engage and respond to contemporary political and social issues. Documentary art and media dominated American mass culture between the Depression and World War 2, and poets seized upon the cultural authority and semblance of objectivity that documentary provided for their work. Recent scholars have recognized the importance of documentary to American modernist art and literature, yet the productive relationship between documentary and American modernist poetry has been overlooked. This thesis will show that documentary poetics is essentially an interdisciplinary practice, borrowing and adapting developments from film and photography in order to shape a variety of source materials. American documentary poets also experimented with a myriad of primary resources, ranging from presidential letters, legal reports, government hearings, historical and political texts, and eyewitness accounts, while simultaneously experimenting with poetic form and arrangement.
    [Show full text]
  • Sam Tanenhaus Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf900006kh No online items Preliminary Inventory to the Sam Tanenhaus papers Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 1998 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Preliminary Inventory to the Sam 97029 1 Tanenhaus papers Title: Sam Tanenhaus papers Date (inclusive): 1901-1998 Collection Number: 97029 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 69 manuscript boxes, 4 oversize boxes(32.4 Linear Feet) Abstract: Writings, correspondence, trial transcripts, memoranda, notes, and printed matter, relating to the life of Whittaker Chambers and to the Alger Hiss espionage case. Used as research material for the book by Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (New York, 1997). Includes letters by Chambers. Creator: Tanenhaus, Sam Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1997. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Sam Tanenhaus papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Subjects and Indexing Terms Communism -- United States Espionage, Russian -- United States Hiss, Alger Chambers, Whittaker Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers box 1 Drafts box 2 Drafts box 3 Drafts box 4 Drafts box 5 Drafts box 6 Drafts box 7 Drafts Preliminary Inventory to the Sam 97029 2 Tanenhaus papers Drafts box 8 Drafts box 9 Drafts box 10 Drafts box 11 Drafts box 12 Drafts box 13 Drafts box 14 Galleys Sam Tanenhaus, draft articles box 15 Sam Tanenhaus, draft articles box 16 Sam Tanenhaus, draft articles Notebooks box 17 United States vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Lennon, John and Magnus Nilsson, Eds. (2017) Working-Class Literature(S): Historical and International Perspectives, Stockholm University Press, Stockholm
    Journal of Working-Class Studies Volume 3 Issue 2, December 2018 Gauthereau Lennon, John and Magnus Nilsson, eds. (2017) Working-Class Literature(s): Historical and International Perspectives, Stockholm University Press, Stockholm Review by Lorena Gauthereau Working-Class Literature(s) brings together six essays that engage different national working- class literatures: Russia and the Soviet Union, the United States, Finland, Sweden, Mexico, and Great Britain. While this collection does not provide an exhaustive perspective of global working- class literatures (nor does it intend to), it does provide an overarching examination of a variety of national literatures labeled as ‘working-class.’ In doing so, it highlights not only the often- conflictive definitions of the genre, but also the historical context, evolution, national specificity, and international influences of and on working-class literature(s). In the introduction, editors Lennon and Nilsson argue for the timeliness of this collection. Their research yielded few studies of working-class literature from a comparative national perspective. This collection, then, certainly provides a broad representation of working-class literature across national borders. Citing John Russo and Sherry Lee Linkon (2005), the editors suggest that current trends in literary criticism, ‘such as sexuality, disability, and species has pushed class even further down on the agenda’ (13 qtd. x). Likewise, they argue that contemporary studies of working-class literature have not shown a ‘significant development of analytical tools’ and instead, rely on outdated theory that has not evolved over the past decades in the same way as other theoretical frameworks (xi). While I would grant that perhaps sexuality and gender have been at the forefront of current trends in literary criticism, class is often part of the critical conversation for women of color feminists (at the very least in the United States and Latin America) albeit tied to other markers of identity, such as race/ethnicity, sexuality, and gender.
    [Show full text]
  • Class, Gender and Aesthetics in Agnes Smedley's Daughter of Earth
    Reexamining the Proletarian Fictional Autobiography: Class, Gender and Aesthetics in Agnes Smedley’s Daughter of Earth John Lennon, University of South Florida and Magnus Nilsson, Malmö University1 Abstract It is accepted truth that proletarian literature is marked by a tension, or even contradiction, emanating from the social conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This article explores these contradictions within the proletarian autobiographical novel form, focusing on Agnes Smedley’s Daughter of Earth. Smedley challenges predominately masculine discourse in working-class literature, boldly placing female desire at the center of her political project. Smedley intimately ties her understanding of class with her gender identity, something that was at loggerheads with contemporary leftist male critics who championed her working-class sensibility but resisted the gendered implications of her work. Our article pushes against a solely nationalistic viewpoint that many critics have embraced. To better understand the genre, we place Smedley’s novel in conversation with Swedish working-class writer Moa Martinson’s 1936 autobiographical novel Mor gifter sig [My Mother Gets Married]. By doing so, we analyze the nationalistic context of Smedley’s book, underlining how being ‘poised between bourgeois and revolutionary discursive traditions’ is something historical and place-based, and arguing that this is key to understanding the category of proletarian fictional autobiography. Keywords: proletarian autobiographical novel; working-class
    [Show full text]