The Industrial Muse

A Study of Nineteenth Century British Working-Class Literature

Martha Vicinus

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032795362
• eBook ISBN: 9781040087596
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

First published in 1974, The Industrial Muse is a study of the literary achievements of the working class. The focus is upon the cultural environment and assumptions of self-educated writers, their literary preoccupations and careers, and the content, form and structure of their writings.

This literature must first be considered from the perspective of the working people who read and wrote it, for it functioned in their lives in a number of important ways. Its character was due in large part to the conscious efforts of educated workers who wish to gain cultural recognition along with social and economic justice. It helped to shape individual and class consciousness by giving order to working men's lives and clarifying their relationship with those who held cultural and political power. This literature asserted the autonomy of the working class, but did not posit a new worldview, lest the gains of class solidarity be lost irretrievably. This is an interesting read for scholars and researchers of working-class literature, english literature and working-class history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Plates
• Dedication
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Street Ballads and Broadsides: The Foundations of a Class Culture
• 2 Literature as Propaganda:The Coal Miners’ Unions,1825-1845
• 3 Chartist Poetry and Fiction: The Development of a Class-Based Literature
• 4 Literature as a Vocation: The Self-Educated Poets
• 5 An Appropriate Voice: Dialect Literature of the Industrial North
• 6 The Music Hall: From a Class to a Mass Entertainment
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index