Working-Class Literature - Historical and International Perspectives

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.