The Working Class and Twenty-First-Century British Fiction

Phil O'Brien argues that the novels explored in this work offer ways of understanding fundamental aspects of contemporary capitalism for the working class in modern Britain, including class struggle, inequality, trauma, social abjection, racism, and stigmatization.

The Working Class and Twenty-First-Century British Fiction looks at how the twenty-first-century British novel has explored contemporary working-class life. Studying the works of David Peace, Gordon Burn, Anthony Cartwright, Ross Raisin, Jenni Fagan, and Sunjeev Sahota, the book shows how they have mapped the shift from deindustrialisation through to stigmatization of individuals and communities who have experienced profound levels of destabilization and unemployment. O'Brien argues that these novels offer ways of understanding fundamental aspects of contemporary capitalism for the working class in modern Britain, including, class struggle, inequality, trauma, social abjection, racism, and stigmatization, exclusively looking at British working-class literature of the twenty-first century.

Autorentext

Phil O'Brien has written on working-class fiction and theatre for Textual Practice and Literature & History and in Accelerated Times: British Literature in Transition (Cambridge University Press) and Working-Class Writing: Theory & Practice (Palgrave). He is secretary of the Raymond Williams Society, on the editorial board of Key Words, *and editor of Culture & Politics* (Verso) by Raymond Williams. He has taught at the University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University. This is his first book.

Klappentext

Phil O'Brien argues that the novels explored in this work offer ways of understanding fundamental aspects of contemporary capitalism for the working class in modern Britain, including class struggle, inequality, trauma, social abjection, racism, and stigmatization.

Inhalt

Introduction: Class, Culture, Politics

Part One: Mapping Deindustrialisation

Chapter One: David Peace and the Strike Novel: Conflict, History, Knowledge

Chapter Two: Gordon Burn and Working-Class Nostalgia: Region, Form, Commodification

Chapter Three: Anthony Cartwright and the Deindustrial Novel: Realism, Place, Class

Part Two: Resisting Demonisation

Chapter Four: Ross Raisin and Class Mourning: Masculinity, Work, Precarity

Chapter Five: Jenni Fagan and the Revolting Class: Gender, Stigma, Resistance

Chapter Six: Sunjeev Sahota and the Racialised Worker: Class, Race, Violence

Conclusion: Class Matters