Abstract
This chapter analyses the ways in which ideas of formal experimentation have marginalized working-class texts. Focusing on the 1930s, it considers the representation of committed writing as a deviation from the main current of twentieth-century literature, an argument that suggests politics is incompatible with art. The position has particular implications for the reception of working-class writing, which is frequently characterized as didactic and polemical, neglecting formal questions to concentrate on its subject matter. The chapter uses analyses of James Hanley, James Barke, and Jack Hilton to emphasize the diversity of working-class writing. It argues that such texts develop a variety of techniques to disrupt established representation traditions and respond critically to new social and political struggles.
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Clarke, B. (2018). Working-Class Writing and Experimentation. In: Clarke, B., Hubble, N. (eds) Working-Class Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96310-5_2
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