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Swirling Voices: Considerations of Working-class Poetic Property

Year 1995, Issue: 2, 73 - 79, 01.10.1995

Abstract

The political and economic power of the working classes has only rarely and temporarily risen to a level of direct influence on the traditions that constitute literary practices as a dominant cultural form. It is therefore difficult to talk about a tradition of working-class poetry in a way that does not reduce it to middle-class terms, according to which it would be viewed as a Minor literature--almost as a culturally deprived literature--qualified by a few geniuses such as Whitman in America or D.H. Lawrence in Britain who somehow managed in their art to transcend their working-class status. Yet if we define the "working class," as I heard Nicholas Coles define it during a panel on Working-Class Literature at the 1992 MLA Convention, as "most of the people, most of the time," then we are compelled to recognize its relevance and the importance of discussing it as best as we can on its own terms. What I seek to show in this paper is the extent to which the terms which is to say, the dialogic manner of working-class poetry are also our own--for most of us, most of the time: For, although constituted in part by the relationships of its subordinant status, working-class poetry also presupposes within it our own answering voices, even as our own most intimate thoughts presuppose the answering voices of those others with whom we are most familiar in the daily conditions of our lives and histories. After discussing traditions of working-class poetry in English, I focus on two contemporary American workingclass poets, Peter Oresick and John Ventola.

References

  • Carlyle, Thomas. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. 3. New York: Scribner's, 1899.
  • Foley, Barbara. Radical Representations: Politics and Form in U.S. Proletarian Fiction, 1929-1941. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1993.
  • Gagnier, Regina. Subjectivities, A History of Self-Representation in Britain, 1832- 1920. London: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  • -----. Foreigners: The Making of American Literature, 1900-1940,. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
  • Landry, Donna. Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women's Poetry in Britain 1739-1790. London: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  • Maidment, Brian. The Poorhouse Fugitives: Self-taught Poets and the Poetry of Victorian Britain. Manchester: Carcante Press, 1987.
  • Nelson, Cary. Repression and Recovery: Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory 1910-1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
  • Oresick, Peter and Nicholas Coles. Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
  • Robinson, Zan Dale, ed. The Workplace. Buffalo NY: Labor Arts Books, 1992.
  • Volosinov, V. N. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Trans. Ladislav Matejka and I. R. Titunik. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.
  • Zandy, Janet. Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings, An Anthology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.
  • -----. Liberating Memory: Our Work and Our Working-Class Consciousness. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Year 1995, Issue: 2, 73 - 79, 01.10.1995

Abstract

References

  • Carlyle, Thomas. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. 3. New York: Scribner's, 1899.
  • Foley, Barbara. Radical Representations: Politics and Form in U.S. Proletarian Fiction, 1929-1941. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1993.
  • Gagnier, Regina. Subjectivities, A History of Self-Representation in Britain, 1832- 1920. London: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  • -----. Foreigners: The Making of American Literature, 1900-1940,. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
  • Landry, Donna. Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women's Poetry in Britain 1739-1790. London: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  • Maidment, Brian. The Poorhouse Fugitives: Self-taught Poets and the Poetry of Victorian Britain. Manchester: Carcante Press, 1987.
  • Nelson, Cary. Repression and Recovery: Modern American Poetry and the Politics of Cultural Memory 1910-1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
  • Oresick, Peter and Nicholas Coles. Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
  • Robinson, Zan Dale, ed. The Workplace. Buffalo NY: Labor Arts Books, 1992.
  • Volosinov, V. N. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Trans. Ladislav Matejka and I. R. Titunik. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.
  • Zandy, Janet. Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings, An Anthology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.
  • -----. Liberating Memory: Our Work and Our Working-Class Consciousness. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
There are 12 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Peter J. Grieco This is me

Publication Date October 1, 1995
Published in Issue Year 1995 Issue: 2

Cite

MLA Grieco, Peter J. “Swirling Voices: Considerations of Working-Class Poetic Property”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 2, 1995, pp. 73-79.

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey