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Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics in Women Workers’ Education

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Book cover Women Workers' Education, Life Narratives and Politics

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education ((GED))

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Abstract

In this chapter I argue that art and life are tightly interwoven in the politics and aesthetics of workers’ education, creating an artpolitics assemblage that I will discuss and explicate framing it within Jacques Rancière’s influential theorisation of the relation between aesthetics and politics, as well as Foucault’s (1986b) notion of the ethics and aesthetics of the self as transformative forces in the constitution of the subject.In mapping this assemblage I have looked at entanglements between reading and writing, literature and poetry, fiction and autobiographical writing, music and drama, making connections and comparisons between and amongst three geopolitical and cultural contexts in the first decades of the twentieth century: France, the UK and the USA.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Should literature find a place in the curriculum of workers’ colleges?’, November 3, 1923 (FCP/NYPL/Writings).

  2. 2.

    See Thacker 1993, McNay 1994.

  3. 3.

    ‘Should literature find a place in the curriculum of workers’ colleges?’ (FCP/NYPL/Writings).

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Jeanne Paul, ‘What literature means to me’, Bryn Mawr Light, 1926 (in Hollis 2004, 149–150).

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 149.

  9. 9.

    Hilda Smith to Bouvier, August 14, no year, (BHVP/AMB/FJB/Cor/B17/2).

  10. 10.

    Ida Ritter, Bryn Mawr Light, 1925 (in Hollis 2004, 33).

  11. 11.

    Ibid.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Sarah Gordon, ‘A typical day in my life’, 1929 (in Hollis 2004, 74).

  14. 14.

    See (RPP/NYPL/Writings) for Pesotta’s three unpublished novels: The Jew is Human Too, From My Left-Hand Pocket and The Unconquerables.

  15. 15.

    (RPP/NYPL/Writings/About a Girl and a Cat).

  16. 16.

    (RPP/NYPL/Writings/To a Spinster Sitting on a park bench).

  17. 17.

    (RPP/NYPL/Writings/Mary).

  18. 18.

    Marie-Claire (1910), translated in English in 1911; ’Atelier de Marie-Claire (1920), translated in English in 1920; Valserine and other stories, 1912, bilingual publication; De la ville au moulin, 1926. Douce Lumière, 1937. Available on-line at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Audoux%2C+Marguerite%2C+1863-1937%22 [Accessed 19 February 2015].

  19. 19.

    Helen Roseman, 1931, Shop and School 30 (in Hollis 2004, 130).

  20. 20.

    Betty Katz, ‘Tree, beautiful tree’, Shop and School, 1932 (in ibid., 135).

  21. 21.

    Thelma Brown, ‘Thoughts’, Shop and School, 1937 (in ibid., 137).

  22. 22.

    Apostolat des Femmes/La Femme Nouvelle, January 11, 1833, 132–33.

  23. 23.

    Women of Summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRSemT8jCg [Part-2] (9.05–10.08) [Accessed 28 March 2016]

  24. 24.

    ‘Educational department of the international ladies’, garment workers’ union’, unpublished essay (FCP/NYPL/ILGWU), 32.

  25. 25.

    ‘Garment workers speak’ (FCP/NYPL/ILGWU).

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    Ruth Wellman to FC, letter dated June 4, 1927, (FMC/NYPL/Cor.).

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    ‘Books for a troubled world: The influence of literature on our daily life; the contribution of creative criticism to the enjoyment and understanding of good books’ essay by Fannia Mary Cohn, March 1946, (FMC/NYPL/Writings).

  30. 30.

    Ibid.

  31. 31.

    Rose Pesotta, diary entry, May 25, 1942, (RPP/NYPL/Diaries).

  32. 32.

    FC to Morris Bialis, letter dated August 26, 1958 (FCP/NYPL/Cor.).

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Margaret Perry (b.1922), untitled TS (1975), Brunel University Library, p.9 (cited in Rose 2010, 5).

  35. 35.

    Voilquin, ‘Reine, Cardinal et Page’, Comedy in One Act de M. Anselot’, in Apostolat des Femmes-La Femme Nouvelle 1(10), 118, December, 1832.

  36. 36.

    Voilquin, ‘Aoust 1572 ou, Charles IX a Orleans’, a historical drama by Jean Lesguillon, in Apostolat des Femmes-La Femme Nouvelle, 1(8), 80–81, December 1832.

  37. 37.

    Parlor, ‘Le peuple et l’Art,’ La Fronde, 9 August 1903.

  38. 38.

    Madeleine Pelletier, ‘Admission des femmes dans la franc-maçonnerie’, extract from the magazine L’ Acacia, May 1905, pp. 5–6. Available on Gallica (BnF), http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k80102k/f1.image [Accessed 17 February 2016].

  39. 39.

    Comradeship, monthly journal of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, July 1923 (cited in Samuel 1985, 27).

  40. 40.

    Huntly Carter, ‘Workers and the Theatre’, Sunday Worker, 18 July 1926, p.8 (cited in ibid., 33).

  41. 41.

    Victoria Grala, Shop and School, 1937 (in Hollis 2004, 96).

  42. 42.

    The complete set of the magazine in microtext is at the Cornell University Library.

  43. 43.

    ‘The problem of form’, Workers’ Theatre, 1931 (cited in Cosgrove 1985, 268).

  44. 44.

    FC to Evelyn Preston, letter dated, 19 April, 1922, (FCP/NYPL/GC).

  45. 45.

    FC to Pesotta, letter dated March 1934, (RPP/NYPL/GC).

  46. 46.

    There are some interesting scenes of the students’ dramatic performances at Bryn Mawr in Heller’s film see, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRSemT8jCg [Part 2], [3.00–4.3m] [Accessed 28 March 2016].

  47. 47.

    Esther Peterson in conversation (Goldfarb 1984, 330).

  48. 48.

    FC to Jess Ogden, letter dated 25 June, 1935, (FMC/NYPL/Cor.).

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Ibid.

  51. 51.

    Ibid.

  52. 52.

    FC to Nate Egnor, letter dated 29 June, 1934, (FMC/NYPL/Cor.).

  53. 53.

    ‘All for one’, One Act Playlet by Irwin Swerdlow and Fannia M. Cohn (FMC/NYPL/Writings).

  54. 54.

    FC to Jess Ogden, letter dated 25 June, 1935, (FMC/NYPL/Cor.).

  55. 55.

    ‘Material for the Pageant ‘Marching On’ by Fannia M. Cohn, April 12, 1934 (FMC/NYPL/Writings), 1.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 2.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., 10.

  61. 61.

    ‘The Uprising of the twenty thousand. The General Strike of the Waistmakers of 1909’, Summary by Daniel Nelson, (FMC/NYPL/Writings), 3.

  62. 62.

    ‘Social drama: A technique for workers’ education’, (FMC/NYPL/Writings).

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    For an overview of the production, see http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/ilgwu/culture/pins/index.cfm [Accessed 20 February 2016]

  66. 66.

    ‘Sing me a song with social significance’, http://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/announcements/oneLongAnnouncementFromDB.html?announcementID=28 [Accessed 20 February 2016].

  67. 67.

    ‘Social drama’, (FMC/NYPL/Writings).

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    FC to Egnor, a union member, letter dated 29 January, 1934. (FMC/NYPL/Cor.).

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  1. School of Law & Social Sciences, University of East London, Docklands Campus, London, United Kingdom

    Maria Tamboukou

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Tamboukou, M. (2017). Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics in Women Workers’ Education. In: Women Workers' Education, Life Narratives and Politics. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49015-5_4

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