What we hold in common : an introduction to working-class studies / edited by Janet Zandy.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Zandy, Janet, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class--United States--History.

Working class.

Working class--Research.

Working class--Study and teaching.

Working class women.

History.

United States.

Working class women--United States--History.

Working class writings, American--History and criticism.

Working class writings, American.

Working class--Study and teaching--United States.

Working class--Research--United States.

Physical Description:

xv, 336 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001.

Summary:

"Let us imagine what it would be like," writes Janet Zandy at the outset of this ground-breaking volume, "if the history and culture of working-class people were at the center of educational practices. What would students learn?" Among other things, she suggests, "They would understand that culture is created by individuals within social contexts and that they themselves could produce it as well as consume it."

This collection draws upon the award-winning 1995 volume of Women's Studies Quarterly, a text that was pivotal in the development of working-class studies. Janet Zandy brings together -- in poetry, fiction, memoir, and song -- the voices of working-class people, with a strong emphasis on the often overlooked voices of working-class women. Critical essays place working-class studies in perspective for teacher and student, as scholars in the field write about recovering autobiographies and oral histories, practicing working-class studies, and current and emerging texts and theories. Course syllabi and curriculum materials offer specific strategies and resources for the classroom. This revised and expanded volume forms a core resource in a rapidly growing field.

Contents:

Working-Class Voices

School Clothes / Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel 3

Go See Jack London / Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel 7

Stories from a Working-Class Childhood / Lisa Orr 10

"Proud to Work for the University" / Kristin Kovacic 12

Ruth in August / Barbara Horn 17

Death Mask / Joann Quinones 24

For Giacomo / Edvige Giunta 26

El olor de cansansio (The Smell of Fatigue) / Melida Rodas 27

The Pawnbroker's Window / Pat Wynne 30

Praise the Waitresses / Pat Wynne 32

Faces in the Hands / Carolyn Chute 34

Recovering Working-Class Autobiography and Oral History

'We Did Change Some Attitudes': Maida Springer-Kemp and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union / Compiled and edited by Brigid O'Farrell, Joyce L. Kornbluh 47

Autobiography and Reconstructing Subjectivity at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, 1921-1938 / Karyn L. Hollis 71

Working Class Consciousness in Jo Sinclair's The Seasons / Florence Howe 96

The Writing on the Wall, Or Where Did That Dead Head Come From? / Cy-Thea Sand 101

Autobiographies by American Working-Class Women: A Bibliography / Cheryl Cline 112

Practicing Working-Class Studies

Reclaiming Our Working-Class Identities: Teaching Working-Class Studies in a Blue-Collar Community (with syllabi) / Linda Strom 123

A Wealth of Possibilities: Workers, Texts, and the English Department / Laura Hapke 132

A Community of Workers (photos and text) / Marilyn Anderson 142

'Women Have Always Sewed': The Production of Clothing and the Work of Women / Janet Zandy 148

The Fire Poems 154

Sisters in the Flames / Carol Tarlen

Rituals of spring (for the 78th anniversary of the shirtwaist factory fire) / Safiya Henderson-Holmes

Working-Class Texts and Theory

Readerly/Writerly Relations and Social Change: The Maimie Papers as Literature / Carole Anne Taylor 165

Between Theories and Anti-Theories: Moving Toward Marginal Women's Subjectivities / Roxanne Rimstead 182

'People Who Might Have Been You': Agency and the Damaged Self in Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio / Lisa Orr 199

Industrial Music: Contemporary American Working-Class Poetry and Modernism / Julia Stein 207

U.S. Working-Class Women's Fiction: Notes Toward an Overview / Constance Coiner 223

New Initiatives, Syllabi, and Resources

Traveling Working Class / Janet Zandy 241

Building a Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University / Sherry Lee Linkon, John Russo 253

The Rochester Education Alliance of Labor Work-Based Curriculum Project / Douglas D. Noble 258

Honor Thy Students: The Power of Writing / Edvige Giunta 265

Mining Class: A Bibliographic Essay / Laura Hapke 269

Working, Buying, and Becoming: Race, Labor, and the High Life, from the Plantation to the Internet (syllabus) / Todd Vogel 275

Working-Class Studies and the Question of Proletarian Literature in the United States: A Graduate Seminar in American Literature (syllabus) / Will Watson 283

Women and Work in U.S. History (syllabus) / Peter Rachleff 285

Poor in America (syllabus) / Chuck Barone 290

American Capitalism (syllabus) / Chuck Barone 294

Who Does the Work? A One-Day Introduction to American Working-Class Literature (syllabus) / Julia Stein 298

Working-Class Literature and Film (syllabus with student writing) / Larry Smith, Carolyn J. Garcia, Julia Morton, Gina Parmer, Mary E. Pentridge 301

Labor Documentaries: A Filmography / Tom Zaniello 311

American Working-Class Literature: A Selected Bibliography / Nicholas Coles 315.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1558612580

1558612599

OCLC:

46353413