The Routledge Companion to Literature and Class

Gloria McMillan, Gloria McMillan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000413977
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Literaturkritik

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Class offers a comprehensive and fresh assessment of the cultural impact of class in literature, analyzing various innovative, interdisciplinary approaches of textual analysis and intersections of literature, including class subjectivities, mental health, gender and queer studies, critical race theory, quantitative and scientific methods, and transnational perspectives in literary analysis.

Utilizing these new methods and interdisciplinary maps from field-defining essayists, students will become aware of ways to bring these elusive texts into their own writing as one of the parallel perspectives through which to view literature. This volume will provide students with an insight into the history of the intersections of class, theory of class and invisibility in literature, and new trends in exploring class in literature. These multidimensional approaches to literature will be a crucial resource for undergraduate and graduate students becoming familiar with class analysis, and will offer seasoned scholars the most significant critical approaches in class studies.

Part I

History of the Intersections of Class

1 Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender in Australian Indigenous Literature

Sarah Attfield

This essay considers the ways in which Australian Indigenous writers reveal the intersections of class, race, and gender in their work. Before beginning it is important that I acknowledge my position: I am a white British immigrant living and working in Australia and therefore benefiting from the colonial structures that continue to disadvantage Indigenous people in Australia. Writing about Indigenous literature from a non-Indigenous perspective is potentially problematic due to the history of white people’s researching and writing about Indigenous people without acknowledging Indigenous people as creators of knowledge (Moreton-Robinson 331). Indigenous feminist scholar Aileen Moreton-Robinson asserts that whiteness is “an epistemological a priori” (75), meaning that whiteness is taken as a norm and not interrogated—it is invisible (to white people), and white ways of knowing are used as the standard and therefore hold the power (Moreton-Robinson 75). Indigenous author and literature scholar Anita Heiss also suggests that it can be problematic for white people to write about Indigenous themes, but she relates this more to creative writing, and to white people choosing narratives centered on Indigenous stories that are not theirs to tell; however, she acknowledges that some white literary scholars have attempted to write about Indigenous literature in an inclusive manner (10). According to Maggie Nolan, if non-Indigenous scholars avoid engaging with Indigenous literature due to concerns of white hegemonic dominance there is a risk that Indigenous literature will be ignored by non-Indigenous scholars and not given the attention it deserves (38). I am conscious that I am writing about Indigenous literature from a white perspective, and I have used the works of Indigenous theorists to support my points where possible. I am also approaching this analysis from a working-class perspective due to my working-class background. My class background and experience of growing up in social (subsidized) housing in a single-parent family reliant on social security mean that I have some understanding of aspects of Indigenous literature relating to economic hardship. While I have never experienced racism due to the privilege of my white skin and Anglo ethnicity, I do understand poverty and the resilience and resourcefulness that come with hardship and recognize the importance of community and solidarity.

I should also clarify here the terminology I am using in this essay. I have decided to use “Indigenous” to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers—while there are some authors who refer to themselves as “Aboriginal” or “Torres Strait Islander,” others refer to themselves in relation to their specific tribal or language group such as Bundjalung (people from the northern coastal areas of New South Wales) for example or as Koori (which relates to Indigenous people from New South Wales and Victoria more generally), or Murri (which is a general term for Indigenous Queenslanders). Not all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people like the term “Indigenous” because it is sometimes considered too generic, but for the purposes of this essay it does serve as an umbrella term. I do acknowledge the huge diversity of Australian Indigenous culture in terms of languages spoken, cultural practices, country lived in, histories, and general everyday experiences as outlined by Heiss (21). I have maintained the term Aboriginal, though, when it occurs within direct quotations.

My contention is that much Indigenous literature can be considered as (additionally) working-class literature. There are many commonalities between Australian Indigenous literature and working-class literature due to the classed experience of Indigenous Australians. The majority of Indigenous Australians are working class, and this is because of the discrimination meted out by the British colonial settlers. From the beginning of the British invasion and subsequent settlement, Indigenous Australians were relegated to the bottom of the social ladder. Because the British brought their class system to the colony, this translated to working-class status for Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians have not had access to methods of social mobility. There are significant gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in terms of educational opportunity for example, which has meant that only a small percentage of Indigenous people have had access to formal higher education, and therefore entry into middle-class professions. Most Indigenous Australians occupy working-class positions, and many Indigenous Australians experience poverty or financial hardship. Anne Brewster claims that Indigenous people have acknowledged the class solidarity shared between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous working-class people and the commonalities between Indigenous people and “poor whites” through, for example, the shared experience of poverty (6). While the specific experiences of Indigenous Australians need to be acknowledged, these class similarities are important. Heiss notes the specific oppression and discrimination faced by Indigenous Australians relates to the dispossession from land during colonial times, when Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands (Black Poetics 183). While Indigenous people resisted, there were massacres and outbreaks of European diseases (such as smallpox) that had a devastating impact on Indigenous communities. Another specific experience relates to the removal of children from Indigenous families (Black Poetics 187) for the purpose of assimilation into white culture (this continued until the 1960s). Children were taken to institutions to be trained as farm and domestic workers for white landowners and as domestic workers for rich white people in the cities. The children taken from their families form the Stolen Generations, and the surviving members continue to suffer from inter-generational trauma. Indigenous Australians are also more likely than non-Indigenous people to be incarcerated and to die in custody (Black Poetics 189). Indigenous Australians continue to face daily racism and discrimination.

Indigenous and wider working-class literature also share similarities in terms of style such as use of pared-back, simple language that is usually steeped in the vernacular and contains slang and casual use of expletives, employing a “straightforward style of writing” (Heiss, Dhuuluu-Yala 32) that is influenced by the “traditional oral language” (Gilbert, Inside Black Australia xix). This is working-class linguistic capital that might seem alien to middle-class readers used to works written in “standard English.” There is also a sense of working-class social capital with reference to activities and matters that might not be familiar to middle-class readers such as aspects of working-class culture (particularly some popular culture) and some cheap food items. Indigenous and wider working-class literature often refers to dealings with government agencies, particularly social security and unemployment services (Centrelink), which are also likely to be unfamiliar to middle-class readers. There are common themes such as work and unemployment, financial hardship, life in social housing or homelessness, community, brushes with the law and prison, as well as community, everyday life, and the small pleasures that people enjoy.

Indigenous Australians have used literature as a method of speaking truth to power and to resist the colonial forces, and as a result, Indigenous literature is political both in terms of its content, but also because Indigenous Australians have been silenced and marginalized. Heiss and Minter explain that Indigenous people used “writing as a tool” (2) to communicate with the British colonial authorities and to express resistance and dissent. The first recorded text written by an Indigenous person in Australia is a letter to Governor Arthur Phillip in 1796 composed by Sydney man Bennelong (Heiss and Minter 1). Wheeler suggests that Australian Indigenous writing was largely ignored until the 1970s (37). Heiss (Black Poetics 181) points to the popularity of poetry among Indigenous Australians, and suggests that the form is conducive to political messages but is also seen as having “fewer restrictions” (181) for emerging writers who might not have had access to formal educations. Heiss states that poetry has remained popular with Indigenous writers into the twenty-first century and claims that much Indigenous poetry deals with issues relating to the continuing effects of colonization as well as “the politics of Aboriginal identity” (181). I am also suggesting that Indigenous literature in Australia demonstrates how race intersects with gender and class. According to Patricia Hill Collins, intersectionality is a critical social theory (Hill Collins 2) that posits that various types of discrimination “build on each other and work together” and are therefore not “mutually exclusive entities” (Hill Collins 13). As a result, race, gender, and class (and other forms of identity) do not lead to one type of discrimination or oppression, but operate in layers, adding further levels of discrimination. This explains why the feminism of white women has not always taken into consideration the ways in which women of color experience sexism and racism. It moreover elucidates why middle-class feminism does not necessarily accommodate the experiences of working-class women. Sexism is compounded by race, class, and other identity markers such as sexuality and body ability.

The first collection of poetry by an Indigenous Australian was Kath Walker’s 1964 We Are Going (Heiss and Minter 40). Walker adopted her tribal name Oodgeroo Noonuccal in 1988, which was the year of the Australian Bicentenary—a year celebrated by white people and protested by Indigenous people and allies. Her change of name symbolized her commitment to the fight for Indigenous rights that she had led since the 1940s (Heiss and Minter 40). Noonuccal’s 1966 poem “No More Boomerang” illustrates the intersection of class and race oppression faced by Indigenous Australians. The poem largely relates to aspects of working-class life, both working-class culture and work. There is reference to white working-class culture of cinema going and the pub, but in negative contrast to the types of activities that Indigenous people may have engaged in prior to colonization, such as “corroboree” (a gathering of people for storytelling). The intersection with race and racism is evident in the line “Colour bar and beer” (line 4) which refers to the racist practice of white pub owners refusing Indigenous people entry into their pubs. Indigenous customers would be served alcohol through a kiosk and expected to drink away from the premises. The poem also refers to Indigenous people having to “track bosses” (line 13) instead of going out hunting and traveling by “bus to the job” (line 16) and working with tools to manufacture things for the white man rather than making things for community use. There are issues in the poem that relate to those faced by working-class people more widely, and the poem is therefore relatable to non-Indigenous working-class people. Heiss (Black Poetics 180) states that Noonuccal’s poetry was well-received by white readers at the time, and this points to the communality of experience in poems such as “No More Boomerang” while also illustrating the specific issues faced by Indigenous people as a result of colonization. The poem also shows that Indigenous Australians are likely to be working class through the references to working-class activities—there is no mention in the poem of Indigenous Australians engaging in white middle-class activities, from which they have generally been excluded (although I acknowledge here that there are middle-class Indigenous people in Australia).

The aforementioned Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 were marked by Indigenous Australians with political protest and with an explosion of published collections such as Inside Black Australia (1988) which is an anthology of Indigenous poetry edited by Wiradjuri writer Kevin Gilbert and first-person memoir such as Bundjalung (northern coast of New South Wales) author Ruby Langford Ginibi’s 1988 autobiography Don’t Take Your Love to Town. The raising of awareness of the fight for Indigenous rights at this time was pivotal for Indigenous authors who were able to publish their writing and reach both Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers. While Indigenous activists had always been fighting hard, the publicity around the Bicentenary created an opportunity for Indigenous voices to be amplified (Antor 207) and created some understanding among non-Indigenous people of the continuing ramifications of colonization.

Inside Black Australia includes a number of poems that illustrate the working-class status of Indigenous Australians such as Charmaine Papertalk Green’s poem “Pension Day.” Papertalk Green grew up in rural Western Australia and experienced “apartheid oppression” in her youth (Gilbert, Inside Black Australia 73). Her poem “Pension Day” highlights the reality of people relying on government benefits to survive and who treat payday as an opportunity for some celebration as a restart to the month and the possibility of a decent feed and maybe some entertainment. The pension recipients in the poem (in Australia “pension” can refer to a variety of social security payments) “sit under the gumtrees / waiting for the Post Office to open” (lines 1–2). The narrator observes the recipients’ unspoken agreement that they will take their payment and head to the “club” (line 11), but the narrator does not cast judgment. The poem has a humorous tone as the narrator describes the routine nature of the situation—it is implied that the same happens every pension day. This use of humor is common among Indigenous creative works; as Anne Brewster states, Indigenous authors have “deployed humour across a range of literary … genres” (Gallows Humour 233). Indigenous authors use humor as a “political and cultural weapon” (Gallows Humour 235) to challenge colonial hegemony and to “critique whiteness” (Gallows Humour 235). Sometimes humor is used to soften the blow, and to make difficult issues or recounts of trauma more accessible for readers. Humor can also be used more forcefully—a funny scene or humorous line can make an upcoming confronting moment even starker and more powerful.

Langford Ginibi’s Don’t Take Your Love to Town demonstrates the intersections of race, gender, and class. Her autobiography recounts her experiences with poverty, domestic violence, and racism and is written using a “conversational style” (Winch, par. 1). Brewster states that memoirs such as Ginibi’...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction to The Routledge Companion to Literature and Class
• PART I History of the Intersections of Class
• PART II Class in LiteratureIntermittently (In)visible
• PART III New Multifactor Trends in Literature Theory
• Index