- Coles, Nicholas and Paul Lauter. 2017. A History of American Working-Class Literature. Cambridge UP. 1–7, 232–263 and 376–405.
- Clark, Ben and Nick Hubble. 2018. Introduction. In Working-Class Writing: Theory and Practice. Palgrave McMillan. 1–6.
- Clark, Ben (ed.) 2025. The Routledge Companion to Working-Class Literature. Routledge.
- Karlsson, Mats. 2016. The Proletarian Literature Movement: Experiment and Experience. In Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature. Routledge. 111–124.
- Mkhize, Jabulani. 2010. Shades of Working-Class Writing: Realism and the Intertextual in La Guma's ‘In the Fog of the Seasons' End. 36.4
- Lennon, John and Magnus Nilsson (eds.). 2017 Working-Class Literature(s): Historical and International Perspectives. Stockholm UP.
- Nilsson. Magnus. 2019. ”Working-class comics? Proletarian self-reflexiveness in Mats Källblad’s graphic novel Hundra år i samma klass.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 10.3 [https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2018.1500383](
- Nilsson, Magnus. 2014. Literature and Class: Aesthetical-Political Strategies in Modern Swedish Working-Class Literature. Humboldt-Universität. 18–26 and 115–158.
- Nilsson, Magnus and John Lennon. 2016. “Defining Working-Class Literature(s): A Comparative Approach Between U.S. Working-Class Studies and Swedish Literary History.” New Proposals 8.2, pp 39–61.
- Perera, Sonali. 2014. No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization. Columbia UP. Pp. 1–19.
- Pierse, Michael (ed.) 2017. A History of Irish Working-Class Writing. Cambridge UP. Pp. 1–36.
- Tenngart, Paul. 2019. “The Dislocated Vernacular in Translated Swedish Working-Class Fiction.” [https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2019.1659171](
- Tenngart, Paul. 2016. “Local Labour, Cosmopolitan Toil: Geo-Cultural Dynamics in Swedish Working-Class Fiction.” Journal of World Literature 1.4, pp. 484–502. [https://doi.org/10.1163/24056480-00104001](
- Tokarczyk, Michell M. (ed.) 2011. Critical Approaches to American Working-Class Literature. Routledge. Pp. 1–13
- Wright, Rochelle. 1996. “Literature Democratized: Working-Class Writers of the 1930s”. In Lars G. Warme (ed.), A History of Swedish Literature. U of Nebraska P. Pp. 333–346.
Some literature will be provided via the course learning platform. Additional literature encompassing 200 pages may be added.
Working-Class Literature - Historical and International Perspectives
About the course
Working-class literature brings to the fore questions of vital importance for understanding not only contemporary society, but also global historical developments during the last 150 years, reviewing aspects such as class, power, representation, culture, and work itself. During this course, you will get the opportunity to study working-class literature since the beginning of the twentieth century and the contexts it was written in, from a historical and international perspective. We will focus on this literature’s relationship to both social phenomena and literary developments.
The early part of the course is an introduction to the concept of working-class literature, with a focus on how it has been used in different ways in different contexts. The course will next focus on the ‘golden age’ of Swedish working-class literature, that is to say the early decades of the twentieth century which produced notable canonical texts.
Thereafter, the course opens up to allow you focus on working-class literatures from different countries. Literature from the U.S., the Soviet Union, Japan, South Africa, and Ireland are studied and compared. During the final part of the course, you will make an in-depth study of works and themes that you find especially interesting.
The course literature contains contemporary research about working-class literature, written by leading scholars from all over the world. The course is given entirely on-line, and usually attracts students both from within Sweden and from elsewhere in the world. You are free to write about books originally published in any language, but all work must be discussed in English.
As well as writing short academic papers, you will be required to attend seminars to present and discuss your ideas with other students. At the beginning of term, we will agree times that allow you to ‘attend’ seminars at a time that is convenient, usually in the late afternoon or early evening.
Course content
The aim of the course is to give students the opportunity to study working-class literatures from different periods and contexts from a historical and international perspective, with a focus on this literature’s relationship to both social phenomena and literary development from the nineteenth century until today.
The first part of the course is an introduction to the concept of working-class literature, with a focus on how it has been used in different ways in different contexts. Thereafter, working-class literatures from different countries are studied and compared. The final part of the course is devoted to the writing of individual essays.
Syllabus and course literature
You can find a list of literature in the syllabus, along with other details about the course.
Entry requirements and selection
Entry requirements
General entry requirements + English 6.
Selection
34% Upper Secondary Grades - 34% Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT) - 32% University Credits
Course literature
Course evaluation
Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).
