
In our latest episode of literature and labor, we've looked at narratives about: white ethnic longshoremen (On the Waterfront); chicano steelworkers and their families (Music of the Mill); black female domestic workers (Blanche on the Lam). The texts speak to the varieties of working-class experience.
Yet in each case, the authors of these texts have also chosen different narrative styles or forms to represent their working-class subjects: post-noir neo-realism in On the Waterfront; the multiply narrated family saga of Music of the Mills; and the popular detective plot of Blanche on the Lam.
Your goal in this assignment is to argue for how and why one particular formal choice works better than the others. That is, does Kazan's neo-realist melodrama do a better job of representing the working class than Neely's detective narrative? How does your chosen form enable the writer to reveal new or unremarked aspects of working-class experience? What does the form imply about the author's stance toward his or her subject? What does it reveal about the author's sense of purpose - - i.e. what he or she wants to happen to the audience? What aspects of his or her subject might the author's formal choices ignore or push to the background?
You might start thinking about this assignment by just thinking about which of the three narratives' style you like best. Then, how this style or form affects his or her representation of the working class.
No more than two pages, typed. No errors (typographical, punctuation, etc.).
Due: Tuesday, November 18, 2:10 p.m.
Questions, concerns, consternations: email me at hanley@bway.net.
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