Defining Working-Class Literature(s) [Elektronisk resurs] A Comparative Approach Between U.S. Working-Class Studies and Swedish Literary History

• I artikeln jämförs svensk och amerikansk arbetarlitteratur, samt hur dessa fenomen konstruerats inom svensk litteraturvetenskap och 'new working-class studies'. Med utgångspunkt i denna jämförelse förs en teoretisk diskussion om begreppet och fenomenet arbetarlitteratur. Vi uppmärksammar framför allt två saker: 1) att arbetarlitteratur är såväl ett litterärt fenomen som ett fenomen som står i förbindelse med arbetarklassen, och 2) att arbetarlitteratur ser olika ut vid olika tidpunkter oh på olika platser. 
• In this article, we compare the phenomenon of working-class literature in Sweden and the United States. After examining how working-class literatures have evolved in both countries, we analyze how they have been concep- tualized in two academic fields: contemporary U.S. working-class studies and the study of Swedish literary history. We discuss the material and historical contexts shaping these conceptualizations, critique them on theoretical grounds, and offer ways that comparative approaches help us better understand the phenomenon of working-class literature. Our main argument is that our analysis makes visible two important features of this literature. The first of these, inscribed in the very concept of the term, is that working-class literature is both a literary phenomenon and a phenomenon relating to working-class life. The second feature – a far less obvious, but not less important one – is that working-class literatures are always historically and geographically situated and, thus, assume divergent shapes in different times and locations. We argue that working-class literature as a phenomenon is, therefore, always in a process of new formations. In doing so, we move away from narrow nationalistic views of working-class literature as a defined term and, using a comparative approach, allow for new vantage points in the analysis of the relationship between class and culture. 

Ämnesord

Humanities and the Arts  (hsv)

Humaniora och konst  (hsv)

Genre

government publication  (marcgt)

Indexterm och SAB-rubrik

working-class literature

Swedish literature

American literature

new working-class studies