READING SILLITOE: WORKING CLASS FICTION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.
Item
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Title
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READING SILLITOE: WORKING CLASS FICTION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.
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Identifier
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AAI8713764
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identifier
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8713764
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Creator
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HITCHCOCK, PETER JAMES.
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Contributor
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Morris Dickstein
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Date
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1987
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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What is working class fiction? The answers to this question have been many and varied, but seem to have lacked rigorous theoretical substantiation. Some initial distinctions can be made, of course. Working class fiction is simply writing by working class writers; whereas proletarian fiction can be considered the work of class-conscious members of that social stratum with a particular class-specific political program. Similarly, socialist fiction is also politically committed, but this time as a product of writers who may well be other than working class. Such distinctions do not make working class fiction apolitical, but suggest that the political aims of this category of writing are not simply a reflection of class destiny, intention, or consciousness. To theorize such writing, therefore, we need an approach that goes beyond reflectionist theories of class content. Developing such an approach is the rationale behind this "reading" of Alan Sillitoe.;The analysis proceeds on three interdependent levels: the historical, the textual, and the formal. The first chapter tracks working class fiction within an English context. The salient features of this historical investigation are then used to provide a period study of the late Fifties and early Sixties in England when working class writing had apparently burst upon the scene. The next three chapters provide textual and formal analyses of Sillitoe's writing that situates it not only within the cultural relations of the time, but also as part of a discontinuous history of working class writing in general. The cornerstone of the approach is an adaptation of Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, which allows textual exegesis to be language-based, rather than content-oriented. It also helps to address the thorny problem of the political history of the novel as form. The final chapter attempts a theoretical synthesis with an eye to current political contingencies. Sillitoe does not emerge as a champion of working class fiction, but as a writer whose fiction gives voice to the contradictory possibilities of class-specific cultural production.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
