ACL 3016
Working Class Writing
Semester 4 2007
Footscray Park

unit Co-ordinator/Lecturer
Dr Ian Syson

Introduction

Working class writing describes a vast body of literary and other writings produced around the world over the last 200 years. It is a diverse body that includes writings across a range of forms and genres, represents wide cultural differences, and varies tremendously in terms of political purposes and effects. What these writings have in common, however, is their acceptance and celebration of the working class and class difference as important issues for exploration. Students will be introduced to a range of texts that exemplify both the diverse and singular aspects of working class writing. Verse, prose fiction, criticism and journalism from Australia and around the world will be studied. Students will engage with two underlying theoretical issues: the definition of the working class and the question of whether working class writing is that written by, about or for the working class. The unit also pays attention to questions of critical stance and forms of critical responsibility towards working class people, culture and politics.

STUDENTS' RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES

A NOTE ABOUT PLAGIARISM FOR ALL ARTS STUDENTS

Assessment:

  • Presentation 30%

  • Exam 20%

  • Major essay 50%

Structure

The unit is designed so that each student attends four 6-hour days over the winter break. Each day will be divided into three sessions. It will be taught in a mixed mode that will involve lectures, student presentations, films and discussions.

Attendance of all sessions is compulsory. Students who fail to attend a minimum of 10 sessions will fail the unit.

Timetable:

Day 1 : Monday June 18 A219

Day 2 : Monday June 25 A219

Day 3 : Monday July 9 A219

Day 4 : Friday July 13 A219

ASSESSMENT

1. Presentation (1000 word write-up due on July 23) 30%

The presentation is based on the readings related to sessions listed below and which are either in the set texts or handout form. You will need to read the material and make connections between the various texts set down for each week, paying attention to the key words and tutorial topics listed below. You will be expected to speak to your papers for 15-20 minutes and then raise questions and problems to be thrown open in the group. Some of the material in the reading list will be held on reserve in the library. You will then write up the presentation taking into account the discussion in class and hand it in to my pigeon hole on Monday July 16.

2. 1-hour Exam (held in final session on July 13) 20%

3. Essay (2,500 words, due August 3) 50%

Choose one of the following topics:

  1. Feminisms and Marxisms have over the past four decades and beyond fought over the identity of working class women. How do The Copper Crucible, Sugar Heaven and Bobbin Up deal with this conflict?

  2. Is the working class the object or subject of Germinal and Mary Barton?

  3. Discuss what you see as the important issues raised by the representation of dialect, slang and idiom in working class texts. What are the differences between working class dialect/speech and other forms of dialect/speech as represented within and between Trainspotting, Bobbin Up and Germinal? You need also to discuss some of the work of the contemporary poets (including work from at least one of the optional poetic texts) covered in the unit.

  4. Is the strike novel the highest form of working class literature? Explain why or why not.

  5. Which is the more appropriate form for the ends of working class writing; poetry, prose . . . ? (lecture from 2005 on this topic)

Text Books

You are required to read all of the texts in the left-hand column plus at least one from the right-hand column (you may choose to read them all!). The texts from the right-hand column you choose to read will be determined by your final essay topic and/or class presentation.

COMPULSORY TEXTS OPTIONAL/PARALLEL TEXTS
  • Emile Zola, Germinal (Penguin classics)
  • Elizabeth Gaskell Mary Barton: a tale of Manchester life (Penguin)
  • Dorothy Hewett, Bobbin Up (Vulgar Press edition)
  • Agnes Smedley, Daughter of Earth (Virago) � if available
  • Jean Devanny, Sugar Heaven (Vulgar Press Edition)
  • Betty Collins, The Copper Crucible (UQP) (available from Ian Syson)
  • Overland 165 (available from Ian Syson)
 
  • Irving Welsh, Trainspotting
  • 925 Anthology (Collective Effort)
  • Sarah Attfield, Hope in Hell (fip)
  • Subject Reader
  • Other material to be handed out in class from time to time.
 

UNIT OUTLINE

Key to readings

T compulsory text
H handout
PT parallel text

DAY 1 (9 June) What: about the workers?

Session 1

Session 2

  • Screening of Germinal

Session 3

  • Theme What is working class writing? (Ian Syson)
    Key Terms Class, Writing, Literature

  • Presentation topics:

    • what is class? (1 presentation)

    • what are writing and literature? (1 presentation)

    • what is working class literature? (1 presentation)

Reading for Day 1

DAY 2 Literature by the Working Class

Session 1

Reading

  • Henry Lawson, �The Union Buries its Dead', �Freedom on the Wallaby' and �The Uncultured Rhymer to His Cultured Critics'. H

  • Victor Daley, �The Worker's Worst Foe'. H

  • Lesbia Harford, series of poems. H

  • Martha Vicinus �The Study of Nineteenth-Century British Working-Class Poetry' H

  • John Manifold, Who wrote the Ballads? (Fts Special Coll. Room 784.4994 MAN)

  • The Internationale web site

Session 2

Reading

  • Emile Zola, Germinal T

  • Elizabeth Gaskell Mary Barton: a tale of Manchester life PT

  • Image of miners' delegation at Zola's funeral and sketch made by Zola for Germinal. H

  • Raymond Williams, �The Industrial Novels' Culture and Society H

  • Keith Thomas, Preface to The Oxford Book of Work , H

  • E.P. Thompson, Preface to The Making of the English Working Class , H

  • Raymond Williams, Keywords (301.0142 WIL). (See especially entries under �class' and �literature') H

Session 3

Reading

DAY 3 The Politics of working class writing

Session 1

Reading

  • Emile Zola, Germinal T

  • Betty Collins, The Copper Crucible PT

  • Regenia Gagnier, �The Literary Standard, Working-Class Lifewriting, and Gender' H

Session 2

  • Theme The strike novel

  • Presentation topic The role of the strike novel in working class politics (2 presentations)

  • Key Terms Strike, Lockout, Agit-prop

Reading

  • Dorothy Hewett, Bobbin Up T

  • Jean Devanny, Sugar Heaven PT

  • Betty Collins, The Copper Crucible PT

Session 3

Reading

  • Dorothy Hewett, Bobbin Up T

  • Agnes Smedley, Daughter of Earth PT

  • Jean Devanny, Sugar Heaven PT

  • Betty Collins, The Copper Crucible PT

  • Sharyn Pearce, �The Proletarianization of the Novel: The Cult of the Worker in Australian and American Fiction of the Depression' Southerly 48.2 (1988). H

  • Nicole Moore, �Asking for More: The Impact of Dorothy Hewett.' Overland 153 (1998). H

  • Sarah Attfield, 'Worth Our Salt': Working Class Women's Poetry, Hecate 32.1, 2006: 36-48

DAY 4 Whither Working Class Writing

Session 1

Reading

  • Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting T

  • Christos Tsiolkas, �Suit' Overland H

  • Sarah Attfield, Hope in Hell PT

  • Jane Mendelsohn, �Needles and Sins.' H

Session 2

Reading

  • Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting T

  • Overland 165 T

  • Christos Tsiolkas, �Suit' Overland H

  • Working class poems from Subject Reader H

  • 925 Anthology PT

Session 3 EXAM