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In American society, rural spaces – particularly those of the working class – are seen as stagnant holdovers from a temporal past that “modern” society has evolved beyond. As a result, working-class rurality and those living within these places are viewed as static, ignorant, insular and so on: whatever places do not conform to the appearance of “modern” progress and development simply must be regressed, on both socioeconomic and cultural levels. While scholars in some disciplines are attempting to redress this misconception, other disciplines (like literary studies) largely align with the mainstream perspective that rurality represents a regressed past to our evolved present. However, despite the critical lack of attention to rurality as a viable space in the present, we can see in various fictional works that working-class rural spaces can effectively show us the interrelationship of rural spaces with “modern” society and culture in the present, the continuing relevance and deep history alike of said spaces, and the potential of these fictional working-class rural places to confront America's norms of progress and development within and without their fictional borders. Richard Russo's fiction illustrates the potential to bring out this critical working-class rural voice. Russo's fictional treatments afford the reader an opportunity to witness the ever-changing complexity (not the temporal and cultural regression) of working-class rurality. In turn, Russo's fictional working-class rural spaces offer a counterperspective to the mainstream (defined here as middle-class and (sub)urban) notions of progress that otherwise dismiss these perspectives. In his book Empire Falls, Russo uses nostalgia to assert this counterperspective. This nostalgia not only reaffirms the postwar and early twenty-first-century working-class rural identity of Empire Falls, but it also offers a critique of dominant conceptions of progress and development that continue into our present. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the plays of Mahesh Dattani we see the representation of the marginalized classes of society and the space they occupy in society. This space is forbidden by society and is often ignored by the latter. My paper "The Forbidden Space in Mahesh Dattani's Plays Tara, Thirty Days in September, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Final Solutions: A Study" focuses on this forbidden space and intends to show how this forbidden imaginary space stands out to be more real than the socially recognized space of the mainstream society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism is presented of the book "If I Have Four Apples," by Josephine Lawrence. The author reflects on its portrayal of the social struggles of a lower middle-class U.S. family in the early 1930s. Emphasis is given to the economic aspects of individual responsibility in pursuit of the American Dream. Other topics include labor unions, home ownership, and the disparity between social classes.

The article presents literary criticism of the book "Between the Acts" by Virginia Woolf. According to the author, the novel can be read as the site of Woolf's efforts to manage the tensions between conflicting discourses and cultural forms regarding class and of her search for a more inclusive narrative form. Details related to essays, letters, and diary entries penned by Woolf during the same period are presented. Other topics include pageantry and Woolf's political activities.

A literary criticism of the play "A Fair Quarrel" by William Rowley and Thomas Middleton is presented. It examines depictions of London, England's citizens and gentry and comments on class identity. The author addresses themes of satire, romance, and honor, reflecting on the gentry's dueling code. The play's ending is also analyzed.

The article looks at the novel "American Psycho," by Bret Easton Ellis, focusing on how Ellis uses the fantasies of main character Patrick Bateman to demonstrate the social and economic consequences of neoliberalism. Ellis' depiction of New York City during the 1980s is reviewed, noting the economic and social polarization that exists between business executives and the homeless. The author comments on how the violence and murders committed by Bateman in the novel are extremely graphic to provide contrast to the calm and banal aspects of the rest of the novel.

The article explores how the English translation of the novel "Koolla Madari" by Perumal Murugan reflect the relationship between the upper class and the untouchables in India. The novel's translation by writer V. Geetha is said to illustrate the problem of maltreating the poor community in India. A discussion on the role of translation in a multilingual country such as India is presented. Also given is an explanation on how the novel adds important dimension to the concept of Dalit literature.

In the extensive tradition of adaptations of the Medea myth in German-speaking literature Paul Heyse's novella Medea (1898) has been often overlooked. However, the fact that it is the first text in German-speaking literature to introduce the tragic heroine from classical mythology as 'black' gives it particular relevance. This contribution provides an analysis of the text with emphasis on Heyse's portrayal of the Medea/Wally character at the interface of late-nineteenth-century discourses about race, colonial politics, female sexuality and social class. Die deutschsprachige Literatur weist eine lange Tradition von Adaptionen des Medea-Mythos auf, in der Paul Heyses Novelle Medea (1898) jedoch häufig übersehen wird. Die Tatsache, dass dieser Text der erste in der deutsch-sprachigen Literatur ist, in dem die tragische Heldin der griechischen Mythologie als 'Schwarze' dargestellt wird, verleiht ihm jedoch eine besondere Bedeutung. Der folgende Beitrag liefert eine Analyse des Textes mit Schwerpunkt auf Heyses Darstellung von Medea/Wally im Schnittpunkt der Diskurse um Kolonialpolitik, Rasse, weibliche Sexualität und soziale Klasse am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Archaeologists use writing as an important method of communicating results and interpretations, but have only recently started to consider what this implies about their research, and the effect that any style of writing has on the intended audience. Whilst public interpretation has widened forms of discourse to include narrative, performance and biography, few such academic and professional outputs have been attempted in British post-medieval archaeology, although in the wider discipline of North American historical archaeology there has been some experimentation. It is argued that biography offers new ways of encountering data, as well as opening up different modes of interpretation and communication within professional and academic arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at a revision of the term ›class‹ and its theoretical history that is informed both by cultural theory and literary concepts. The new understanding of ›class‹ is connected with the German idea of Bildung. The literary historical relevance of the resulting offspring Klassen-Bildung is then applied to the genres of the German Bildungsroman and autobiography. Finally, we take a look at recent developments in social history that disclose a strong convergence towards our research initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the characteristics of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. It discusses some of the aspects of the novel including the structural cohesion of the text, the ideological position of gender, class, and race in the novel, and the status and identification of a main character. It adds that the transformation of the stories concerning the life of the author into the novel is not immediately successful, because Lee spent three years in adjusting her work to meet the requirement of the editor, along with the challenges she faced in finishing the manuscript of the novel. It also mentions that the narrator of the novel adds an element of commentary and embellishes the incident for the sake of comic relief.

A literary criticism of the book "Living," by Henry Green is presented. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of the characters. It examines the fiction as anti-mimetic, abstracted from society, and intimately linked to times and economic depression of industrial areas in the mid-1920s. An overview of the story is also given with casts of workers, neighbors, and families connected to Dupret factory.

The years 1888-89 saw the production of two influential collections of Irish folklore: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry by William Butler Yeats and Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta by Douglas Hyde. These works broke strongly with the unscientific and patronising tone of the Buchmarchen tradition in Ireland and established a new theory of folklore. In this theory, Yeats and Hyde distanced peasant narrators in an attempt to secure literary and, ultimately, aristocratic origins for their tales. As a result, Hyde and Yeats, despite their Ascendancy upbringings, could view themselves (and not the peasant narrators) as the legitimate inheritors of folklore narratives. The very stories collected, however, challenge this power dynamic. Stories such as 'Monachar agus Manachar' directly critique the perceived unjust division of labour and profit in rural Ireland in a way that parallels the act of folklore collection. The tales themselves resist the rhetorical frameworks of their Ascendancy collectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the 1885 book “The Rise of Silas Lapham” by William Dean Howells is presented. It examines Howell's portrayal of social mobility in nineteenth-century America. It outlines the characters and explores how they represent the social class mores of Gilded Age society. An overview of the story is also given.

The article focuses on themes, topics, and criticism on American literature. The author notes that with regard to American literary works, the importance of criticism has noticeably declined. Returning to the spotlight that enjoyed popularity half a century ago are themes of broad national identity. More and more specific and localized topics such as race, gender, and class are reportedly being folded in nation-state discussions and writings.

This article considers Constantia Munda's The Worming of a Mad Dogge (1617), the final prose response to Joseph Swetnam's The Araignment of Women, as a pamphlet which grapples self-consciously with literary conventions and exploits “literate” codes of writing. “Literate” here means the ability to interpret different discourses and genres, to appeal to readers of different competencies, and to negotiate social contests through literary means. In The Worming the virtuoso manner of the exploitation of discourses of misogyny and sin, the female voice, elements of the querelle des femmes genre, and a satirical pastiche of learned writing all exhibit the author's skills. Read in these terms, aspects of style, humor, and authorial voice which have troubled critics are seen as techniques which place The Worming in a network of intertextual early modern writings with John Stephens, John Cocke, and John Webster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rendering or portrayal of class division in contemporary African American novels. After an analysis of Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s "Colored People," Andrea Lee's "Sarah Phillips" and Charles Johnson's "Dreamer," the author concludes that contemporary African American novels have continued to play an important role in troubling the black middle class' call for solidarity. He also thinks that the rewriting of class division in African American novels has led to the corruption of realism.

The article examines the pastoral theme of chance encounters between king and commoner in early modern balladry. The author explains how the king-commoner motif was used in British drama at the end of the 16th century. The use of the motif in three plays by dramatist William Shakespeare is addressed. The author talks about how these ballads presented a commoner's perspective that contrasted with the aristocratic tone of the literary pastoral tradition. The rural environment that kings encountered in these ballads is explored. The article also discusses how Shakespeare's version of the pastoral can be seen as a part of a greater popular tradition that satirizes and subverts conventional assumptions about social class distinctions.

The essay presents an introduction to the book "The Rise of Silas Lapham" by William Dean Howells. It notes that the novel, written in the 1880s, is concerned with the idea of nobility in social class and in individual character, and whether it is compatible with a business mentality. It notes Howells' own insecurity among the New England literati, having arrived in Boston, Massachusetts from small-town Ohio. His rise in Boston society and his mental and spiritual troubles are discussed.

The disruptions and transformations caused by the slave trade are largely demographic and cultural. It was through this extended and traumatic forced population transfer that Caribbean colonies across the board became dominantly black communities. For these island nations and territories, the inescapable fact of their blackness had always marked a tangible and material link with their origins in Africa. Jamaica was home to more rebellions than all of the other British islands combined, proof positive of the continuing identitarian role of African culture in the Caribbean during the period of slavery. Colonization's phenomenon of ethnocultural creolization marked an interpenetration of populations and practices originating both from the colonial metropole and from the African continent, such that long-held notions of race and social stratiication would be have to be revised as independence approached, posing a set of complex tensions effectively articulated in Michelle Cliff's novel Abeng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents literary criticism of the novel "Linden Hills" by Gloria Naylor. It reflects on the concept of whiteness in the book, examining how it influences African Americans. The author particularly comments on class and materialism, assessing the latter's impact on African American individual identity and communal relations. The novel's use of moral allegory is also analyzed.

The article discusses the structure and symbolism of the novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham" by W.D. Howells. Howells' characters are said to represent many different social classes. It is argued that the novel's moral message is not rooted in any one character, nor is it tied to any particular social class. This is described as sending an egalitarian moral to Howell's audience. A contrary line of argument, published by the scholar Amy Kaplan in the book "The Social Construction of American Realism," is critiqued.

The article discusses the character of Cécile in the 18th-century French novel "Les Liaisons dangereuses" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Cécile's representation of the psychological and physiological norms for individuals of her gender, age, and social class is noted, mentioning that the suggestions by the character of the Marquise de Merteuil that she is lacking in mental capacity are incorrect, despite his notable ability to correctly judge human psychology. The argument is presented that Merteuil's misunderstanding of Cécile is foundational to the message of the novel with regard to the relations between men and women.

This essay examines the politics of love in the Arabic novel: how love is used to envision a more just and egalitarian society. The marriage market, courtship practices, and kinship ties--which propagate and calcify gender and class hierarchies--prove formidable obstacles to the realization of the utopian vision of social equality. Love ideology becomes a means of defying these conventions, conceived of as a powerful force breaking down the hegemony of the upper classes and male privilege, challenging their sense of propriety and entitlement, and restructuring society according to more egalitarian principles. This essay contests the dichotomization of romantic and politically committed literature in Arabic literary criticism, and likewise, corresponding assumptions about the division between the personal and political, private and public presumably coded in the novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents literary criticism of the short story "São Marcos" by João Guimarães Rosa. The author comments on how the story, published in the book "Sagarana," depicts relations between different races and classes in Brazil and suggests the existence of a social contract between Brazilian characters of different social statuses in Guimarães Rosa's stories. Aspects of identity in the story, such as the separation of the narrator from the protagonist, are noted.

Examining a range of productions of Twelfth Night in Australia not only indicates the variety of approaches that Australian directors have adopted in constructing their own versions of Illyria but also that a recurring motif circulating around these productions is 'exotic Englishness' or a performance of Englishness grounded in Australian stereotypes of the English (and British). Acknowledging this dynamic helps to indicate how well the class war of Twelfth Night sits with, and complements, responses to the British Empire's former presence in Australia and suggests that, although Twelfth Night is not ostensibly concerned with issues of land ownership, it can very readily speak to those issues, particularly in a post-colonial theatrical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has researched the role of diminutive suffixes in Literature and, especially, in the 19th century Spanish novel. Based on the example of an important thesis novel of the period (Galdos' Doña Perfecta), the research findings have shown that the narrator's usage of diminutive suffixes reinforces the author's criticisism of the intolerance and religious fanaticism common among the Spanish conservative social classes in the second half of the nineteenth century. In fact, diminutive suffixes have an axiological nature which turns them into a very useful rethorical device in order to achieve persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which historicity is constructed in Cechov's last play and the ways the play relates to a certain phase of Russian modernization. These ways are primarily temporal. Firstly, the vast historical perspective of the play is shown to be constructed with the help of diverse conceptions of time, which to some extent are connected with social classes. Secondly, the strong sense of historical movement inherent in the play is shown to be constructed by contradicting two different kinds of temporalities: the provincial town chronotope, which pertains to a pre-modern conception of time, and the demand for a goal-oriented action, which pertains to a modern conception of time. Both of these temporalities appear problematic in the context of the play. Furthermore, the play is seen as a critique towards teleological thinking, influential in Russia of the times. Besides scrutinizing The Cherry Orchard, the article also touches upon the problem of temporality in Cechov's prose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta una crítica literaria de la "Comedia de Calisto y Melibea" (conocida también como "La Celestina") de Fernando de Rojas. Se explora la representación literaria de las clases sociales y de las expresiones sexuales entre miembros de distintas clases. Se hace referencia a la interacción económica entre las clases en referencia al servicio y al comercio sexual.

When discussing Edith Wharton's ghost stories, scholars tend to emphasize themes of repressed sexuality and gender, in particular the struggles of women to overcome the traditional roles that threaten to imprison them. While sexual and gender politics undoubtedly inhabit the haunted space of Wharton's stories, a remarkable number of the stories also exhibit anxiety over money and class. In some of the ghost stories, this anxiety is plainly visible, reflecting Wharton's sharp critique of the corrupt nouveau riches and the decaying aristocracy. In other tales, however, less noticed ghosts expose the depth of Wharton's anxiety over class power and inherited money, raising uncomfortable questions about the legitimacy of the class system on which Wharton depended for her own wealth. A close examination of the ghost stories reveals Wharton's participation in and response to America's anxious debate over wealth and class during the rapidly changing economic landscape of the early twentieth-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how constructions of womanhood and femininity affect the working-class encounter with the academy in three early to mid-twentieth-century American novels that feature female protagonists: Agnes Smedley's "Daughter of Earth," Alexander Saxton's "The Great Midland" and Anzia Yezierska's "Bread Givers." Each of these novels weaves together a narrative of desire for education and desire for love. While these women are trying to obtain upward class mobility through education rather than marriage, and while Smedley and Saxton's novels contain the added element of involvement in Socialist and Communist politics, all three protagonists end up unable to escape the romance plot. Taken together, these novels offer valuable insights into the gendered nature of class mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents literary criticism which examines the friendship between novelist Charles Dickens and W. C. Macready, a leading actor of the era. Dickens dedicated "Nicholas Nickleby" to Macready and the author argues the he greatly influenced the content as well. Macready struggled with the general disdain society held towards actors and dearly wanted to be considered a gentleman. The title character shares some of these traits and problems.

The article discusses the self-definition and self-affirmation of the English nineteenth-century male elite through the prism of translating or imitating the poet Horace. The wide selection of Horace's poems meant that he could be appropriated and reprocessed by the English elite for several reasons. Many characters in Victorian literature seeking intellectual self-improvement and consequent increase in social standing use Horace as a possible way to success. Members of the Victorian era could illustrate their cultural capital through the production of English renderings of Horace, and the practice of Horatian pastiche and intertextual allusion became extensive.

The author focuses on the social fiction and criticism of American author William Dean Howells, which the author claims reflect Howells' views of class differences. According to the author, Howells was sympathetic to the concept of democracy, although he was aware of his own social privilege. The author examines Howells' novels "A Hazard of New Fortunes," "The Minister's Charge: Or, the Apprenticeship of Lemuel Baker," and "The World of Chance," discussing the depiction of characters, and the issues of social class, sympathy, and realism in the novels.

The article focuses on the lack of literature about the perspective of the lower middle class. The author analyses the work of Herbert Gans, the author of "Levittowners." Gans argues in "Levittowners" that lower middle class suburbanites are not a group living an academically meaningless existence, but simply focus on different objectives, such as home ownership. Gans also suggests that the lower middle class is not defined by consumerism, but uses it as a guard against a potential drop in social status. The work of Lewis Mumford, who rejected Gans' theories about the lower middle class, is also discussed. The author suggests that the values of the suburban lower middle class parallel those of the United States as a whole.

The article examines the ideology and the exchange of fluids in the work of Aleksandr Bogdanov, who was obsessed with blood and whose fiction features vampires. He wrote two Martian novels: "Red Star" and "Engineer Menni." "Engineer Menni" is a historical novel that tells the story of the Martian class struggle which prepared the way for the social utopia described by Leonid in "Red Star." Bogdanov says people must multiply the experience of the behavior-changing struggle with nature to speed overall human development. According to the author, the novels treat the problem of progress, ideas that Bogdanov had detailed in several 1904 essays.

The article focuses on the characterization of Prince Hal in "Henry IV, Part 2," by William Shakespeare. The author analyzes the action and dialogue of "Henry IV, Part 2," and questions the transition from the seemingly heroic Hal of "Henry IV, Part 1," to the tired Hal of "Part 2." The acceptance of the crown makes Hal an accomplice in the overthrowing and eventual murder of King Richard by Hal's father. The author suggests that the acceptance of his position as King places Hal's flaws in the realm of socio-political compromise.

In My Lady Ludlow (1858), Elizabeth Gaskell depicts the waning of aristocratic power and the waxing of professional hegemony in Regency England. Gaskell's representation of the rising professional order follows a remarkably inclusive ethos: part of what distinguishes the new professional society is its openness to participation by women, members of the working class, and the illegitimately born. Before any of the major feminist movements of the nineteenth century had coalesced, Gaskell's novel pointed to the egalitarian implications of professional ideals. The frame added to the novel on its republication in Round the Sofa (1859), far from being thematically irrelevant as most readers have assumed, further develops the picture of women's professional progress—as well as that of Gaskell herself—by representing the transition from an amateur to a professional and remunerated mode of storytelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the emergence of the Southern Gothic literary tradition and how it reflects a shift in culture to a more visible form of whiteness. It discusses the subjects of class and race in William Faulkner's work, how they join together in oppression, the concept of white privilege, and how it is not granted equally to everyone.

Emilia Pardo Bazán often vocalized her rejection of natural gender roles for men and women. At the same time, she adhered to the belief in social class distinctions based on inherent value and birth. In her 1896 novel Memorias de un solterón her views are outlined as she focuses on the ambiguously gendered protagonist, the bachelor Mauro Pareja, and his struggle to define himself along heterosexual, bourgeois lines. His success and subsequent marriage to the New Woman Feíta Neira underscore the middle class's privileged position and pins the success for national progress squarely on its shoulders. The novel likewise proposes increased equality between the sexes as the partners contribute equally to managing the household. The crossing of gender and class in this work allows Pardo Bazán to examine the future of her nation, which depended on a revision in gender roles as a necessary component of the country's modernization of social structures at the end of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh is presented. It outlines the portrayal of food and eating in the novel and explains that the food gives clues about British social classes. The plot and characters of the novel are described as they participate in the consumption of food and alcohol. The term "gluttony" is used repeatedly to refer to Waugh's use of the term in the novel's preface.

The article identifies seditious content in Jospeh Furphy's "Such Is Life." The book uses an upper class perspective to safely conduct a tour of all levels of Australian society. Furphy clearly comes from a position of anti-empire, and anti-politics as they stand. His sedition in "Such Is Life" is best expressed as a rejection of accepted political and social categories for a more universalist perspective.

This article discusses the representation of liberty in the 1818 play "The Young Carolinians; or, Americans in Algiers," by Sarah Pogson. The play alternates between scenes of captives in Africa and scenes of concerned friends and family back in Carolina, setting up an obvious contrast between the two places. Pogson portrays slavery in the U.S. as benign. She shares the use of strong female characters, but does not focus on the relationship of gender and liberty. Given her contextual choice of Algerian captivity and her use of dual settings, she must divert attention from the obvious issues of race and religion to focus on class. Pogson must show that slavery in the U.S. is legitimate while depicting the enslavement of Americans in Algiers as unjustifiable

This article examines why George Gissing deploys the figure of the prostitute to show the rigid boundaries of class and gender in his works "Workers in the Dawn" and "The Unclassed." Criticism and interpretation of the novels; Themes and values conveyed by Gissing in the novel "Workers in the Dawn"; Comments on Gissing's objection to Charles Dickens' representation of prostitutes.

This paper discusses social categories used freely to describe a specific class of people with supposedly unified characteristics, like "homosexual," "Jew," "male" and "female." Although social categories clearly have their benefit—we could not talk or write about important issues associated with these categories of people unless we have a nomenclature—use of these social categories has its downside. They are easily misconstrued to impose and perpetuate false characteristics upon members of a class; for example Jew may connote frugality; "female" may indicate weakness; "homosexual" may connote depravity. Henry Louis Gates Jr refers to people's tendencies to associate racial categories with personality traits and inherent characteristics: "To do so," he says, "is to engage in a pernicious act of language, one which exacerbates the complex problem of cultural or 'ethnic' difference, rather than assuages or redresses it. "Despite their unjust effects, social categories remain a part of our discourse. Therefore, as educators, we are obligated to teach students that such categories and their connotations do not have real substance. One way to accomplish this is through the reading and teaching of literary fiction which challenges identity categories, and promotes tolerance and diversity. In language and literature classes, students are taught how to "interpret" literature, i.e., how to discern what the author means and what important messages the work conveys. Teaching literature is an exceptional way to promote diversity because so many expert writers discuss, within their works, the impropriety and inaccuracy of identity categories. This paper discusses and interprets works by William Shakespeare and James Joyce, particularly fine examples of literary fiction which cause the reader to question whether identity categories provide any meaningful information about those supposedly within them. This paper provides an example for educators who wish to teach issues of tolerance and diversity through literary fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the signs of aristocracy in the novel "A la Recherche du temps perdu," by Marcel Proust. Proust's model of or artistic subjectivity; Signs of aristocracy in the narrator's artistic development; Ways in which salon society dominates Proust's novel, especially in its greatest critical dimension; Context of Third Republic class struggle; Class and aristocracy as a vital structuring category of Proust's fictional world, as it was of his real world.

The article discusses the diversity of masculinities represented in the novel "David Copperfield," by Charles Dickens. It analyses sexual and class-related anxieties in the fiction. It suggests that the codes used to represent the fictitious character Uriah Heep are similar to anti-Semitic representations of Jews. In Dickens' writings, red hair symbolises uncontrolled masculinity and physical impropriety.