Working-class writing and publishing in the late twentieth century

Literature, culture and community

Tom Woodin

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781526149213
  9780719091117
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526108616
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social History
• Index: History

From the early 1970s, working class writing and publishing in local communities rapidly proliferated into a national movement. This book is the first full evaluation of these developments and opens up new perspectives on literature, culture, class and identity over the past 50 years. Its origins are traced in the context of international shifts in class politics, civil rights, personal expression and cultural change. The writing of young people, older people, adult literacy groups as well as writing workshops is analysed. Thematic chapters explore how audiences consumed this work, the learning of writers, the fierce debates over identity, class and organisation, as well as changing relations with mainstream institutions. The book is accessibly written but engages with a wide range of scholarly work in history, education, cultural studies, literature and sociology. It will be of interest to lecturers and students in these areas as well as the general reader.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Sources of radicalism
• 2 Young people’s writing
• 3 The good old days?
• 4 A beginner reader is not a beginner thinker
• 5 The workshop and working-class writing
• 6 Making writers: more writing than welding
• 7 Alternative publishing and audience participation
• 8 Chuck out the teacher: critical pedagogy in the community
• 9 Class and identity
• 10 The mainstream and the movement
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index