This research cluster is part of the Center for the Uses of Literature and investigates the relationship between literature, social class, and work. We are interested in social class and labour practices as they are represented in literature, and as they shape its production, reception, and criticism. Moreover, we emphasize the uses of literature in forming, distributing, and refiguring ideas about class, and in negotiations of class status. We pay particular attention to the relationship between particular works of literature and changing working conditions in the twenty-first century and explore the diverse forms of cultural expression – including cli-fi novels, Instagram comics, rap lyrics and TV series – which address the contemporary meanings of class and work.
Major focal points in the cluster’s work include:
Intersections of class with gender, race, and age. Class and place/space Affects of class