Iv Football Wishes and Fashion Fair Dreams
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Football Wishes and Fashion Fair Dreams: Class and the Problem of Upward Mobility in Contemporary U.S. Literature and Culture by Sara Appel Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Thomas Ferraro, Supervisor ___________________________ Janice Radway ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Wahneema Lubiano ___________________________ Kathi Weeks Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 i v ABSTRACT Football Wishes and Fashion Fair Dreams: Class and the Problem of Upward Mobility in Contemporary U.S. Literature and Culture by Sara Appel Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Thomas Ferraro, Supervisor ___________________________ Janice Radway ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Wahneema Lubiano ___________________________ Kathi Weeks An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 Copyright by Sara Appel 2012 Abstract Through an analysis of contemporary films, novels, comics, and other popular texts, my dissertation argues that upward class mobility, as the progress narrative through which the American Dream has solidified itself in literary and cultural convention, is based on a false logic of “self-made” individualism. The texts I examine tell a new kind of mobility story: one that openly acknowledges the working-class community interdependence underpinning individuals’ ability to rise to their accomplishments. My work spotlights distinctly un-rich communities invested in the welfare of their most vulnerable citizens. It also features goal-oriented individuals who recognize the personal impact of this investment as well as the dignity of poor and working-class people from “heartland” Texas to Lower East Side Manhattan. American- exceptionalist stories no longer ring true with popular audiences faced with diminishing access to economic resources and truly democratic political representation. The growing wealth gap between the corporate elite and everyone else has resulted in a healthy mass skepticism toward simplistic narratives of hard work guaranteeing the comforts of a middle-clas life. The archive I have identified displays a fundamental commitment to the social contract that is perhaps the greatest of U.S. working-class values, offering a hopeful vision of collective accountability to readers and viewers struggling to avoid immobilizing debt, foreclosure, and the unemployment line. iv Acknowledgments As my mom and other wise people have said, “Relationships are really all that matter in life. Everything else is icing on the cake.” I could not have survived the past nine years without the relationships that continue to sustain me, professionally and as a human being committed to a lifetime of personal discovery and social change. A mountain of gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Thomas Ferraro, for saying: “If you don’t make this next deadline, I’ll be very, very mad at you. But regardless, I’m still going to love you.” Every grad student deserves to hear that; so thank you, for always believing in me, even when I inexplicably refused to believe in myself. Many thanks to the rest of my dissertation committee: Janice Radway, for seeing my potential, and reminding me not to interrupt; Wahneema Lubiano, for your brilliance and passion; Michael Hardt, for always treating graduate students with care and respect. Kathi Weeks, for your enthusiastic, helpful feedback on my chapter drafts, and for putting things in perspective: “The dissertation is just the completion of your education,” you once told me. Additional thanks to professor Robert Korstad, for your friendship and continuing support. Had I not stepped outside the Lit box and taken your “History of Poverty” class, my project would not be what it is today. And to professor Diane Nelson, thank you for answering the call to Occupy, and translate, and entertain the masses, when we needed you most. You’re the real deal. To Deborah Warnock, Michele Fazio, Jack Metzgar, Michelle Tokarczyk, and the rest of my friends and colleagues in Working Class Studies, thank you for helping me v understand what it means to be a “laborer in the knowledge factory.”1 I could not have made it through graduate school without the acceptance I found in the community we know and love. I am honored to continue building our field, our professional association, and a more class-conscious world with you in the years to come. I am also grateful for the department staff and research librarians who put up with my bouts of melodrama (usually involving a copy machine or scanner) over these many years: Tiwonda Johnson-Blount, Karen Bell, Pam Terterian, Maria Maschauer, Melanie Mitchell, Carson Holloway, Lee Sorensen, Greta Boers, Danette Pachtner, Dave Mundeen, Yunyi Wang, and Ken Wetherington. Your infinite patience is much appreciated. Special thanks to Lillian Spiller, who provided me with opportunity after opportunity to teach in Women’s Studies—work that sustained me for years, both financially and intellectually. I would also like to thank the cleaning, maintenance, and security staff of Friedl building for vacuuming up my crumbs, fixing the air conditioner, keeping me safe late at night, and refusing to touch those dirty dishes that lazy grad students should take care of themselves. Without your hard work, the third floor might have caved in by now. Much love to Tracy Gill, Corwen Baker, Darin Schuler, and the rest of the coffee- slinging staff at Joe van Gogh. Thanks for keeping the Earl Grey coming, and for always retrieving my left-behind coccyx support cushion. I knew it was safe in your hands. From day one in grad school, I began assembling a coalition of like-minded interlocutors: folks who realized that being an intellectual was more about sharing big, bold, often crazy ideas (generally over drinks at the Fed) than posturing or being “right.” Kinohi Nishikawa, Kadji Amin, Ignacio Adriasola, P.J. Nadal, Alvaro Jarrin, 1 From the title of Tokarczyk and Elizabeth A. Fay’s 1993 edited anthology (Working Class Women in the Academy: Laborers in the Knowledge Factory. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press). vi Shilyh Warren, Grover Wehman, Mitali Routh, Casey Jarrin, Calvin Hui, Solomon Burnette, Cheryl Alison, and Heather Epes— with an intensity to match my own, each of you have helped deepen my understanding of not only the questions at the heart of my work, but of why I do the work that I do. Thanks for all the mind-melding richness. To Fiona Barnett, who has shared so many of my struggles. Here we are, still standing tall! Thanks for the countless walks, talks, and tears of both sorrow and gut- busting hilarity. Next up-- you! All my love to Emil Paddison, who has known me the longest of long. That goofy girl in the rainbow scarf is a damn doctor now! It’s a testament to the uncanny power of friendship (and our long-distance conversational chemistry) that we could remain as close as we have while maybe seeing each other once a year. Thanks for being the best listener I have ever known, and for becoming a member of my family, even in my absence. All power to the rest of el Cuatro, my three amazing sisters. Together, we’re invincible. Lisa, who works harder than anyone I know; Chelsea, our ukulele superstar; and Maggie— well. You can do anything you want, kid. Also to our dear old dad, Dave Appel. You’re all over this dissertation; if you ever feel like reading it, let me know. Leigh Campoamor: how did we even become friends? All I remember is sitting on the carpeted floor of my room on Broad St., before I had any furniture, laughing into the eyes of the person who would see me through every challenge to come for the next nine years. I think you know how much you mean to me. And finally, the mom, Kathy Appel. Not sure how you got to be who you are— coming from that small town on the Florida coast, where the leatherface women reign vii supreme—but I’m sure as hell glad you made it all the way to San Diego, and on up north. You’re the rock that just keeps on rolling. viii Dedication For my mother, Kathy, and the 99 Percent. ix Contents Abstract..........................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ v Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... ix Introduction: At a Wake, No Longer Alone.............................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: The Bed They Said She Made: Educational Access and the Comic Hero in Katherine Arnoldi’s The Amazing ‘True’ Story of a Teenage Single Mom............................... 18 Stop 1: Disorderly Conduct................................................................................................. 25 Stop 2: Mobilizing an Unmade Bed ................................................................................... 30 Stop 3: Dignity, Shame, and Dependency Problems....................................................... 37 Stop