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No Country

Sonali Perera

250 Pages
2014

No Country

Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization

Columbia University Press

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"No Country" - Summary

Sonali Perera's "No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization" is a compelling exploration of international working-class literature. Perera bridges the gap between various noncanonical texts, highlighting the connections between literary radicalism, feminist recovery projects, and anticolonial and postcolonial fiction. By examining works from authors like Mulk Raj Anand, Tillie Olsen, Ambalavaner Sivanandan, Mahasweta Devi, and Bessie Head, Perera paints a vivid picture of the global economy and the working-class experience. This book is special because it challenges Eurocentric perspectives and redefines working-class writing as a significant part of world literature. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the intricate relationships between literature, politics, and history.

Key Ideas

1

Global Working-Class Experience

: "No Country" emphasizes the shared experiences of the working class across different cultures and time periods. By connecting the struggles of workers from various parts of the world, Perera highlights the universal nature of their challenges and triumphs, making the reader appreciate the global dimension of working-class literature.

2

Intersection of Literature and Politics

: The book delves into how literature serves as a powerful tool for political expression and change. Perera showcases how authors use their works to address social injustices, advocate for workers' rights, and challenge oppressive systems. This theme underscores the importance of literature in shaping political discourse and inspiring activism.

3

Feminist Perspectives in Working-Class Writing

: Perera brings to light the significant contributions of feminist writers to working-class literature. By examining the works of female authors and activists, she highlights the intersection of gender and class struggles. This theme is crucial as it broadens the understanding of working-class literature to include diverse voices and perspectives, enriching the overall narrative.

FAQ's

The main focus of "No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization" is to explore international working-class literature and highlight the connections between literary radicalism, feminist recovery projects, and anticolonial and postcolonial fiction.

"No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization" examines works from authors such as Mulk Raj Anand, Tillie Olsen, Ambalavaner Sivanandan, Mahasweta Devi, and Bessie Head.

"No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization" is considered significant because it challenges Eurocentric perspectives and redefines working-class writing as an important part of world literature, emphasizing the global dimension of the working-class experience and the intersection of literature, politics, and history.

๐Ÿ’ก Full 15min Summary

Understanding working-class literature requires a global perspective, acknowledging narrative disruptions and socialist ethics.
0:00 / 2:13

"No Country" delves into the world of working-class literature, taking a global and comparative approach. It highlights the works of writers from the global South and brings to light the lesser-known traditions and counter-narratives within the realm of working-class writing.

The crux of the argument is that working-class literature cannot be understood merely by looking at the class background of the authors or through the celebrated stories of labor histories and revolutions in the global North. Instead, it should be viewed through the lens of shared sociologies of form, narrative disruptions, and socialist ethics ideologies that bind working-class writing across different languages, nations, and regions.

Working-class writing often features a "serial interrupted form" - narratives that are broken, filled with gaps, interpolations, and heteroglossia. These interruptions symbolize the challenge of portraying class as a stable identity or a fixed entity. Class is a relationship, not an object. This ephemerality and dispersal of class are vividly portrayed through the literary forms in working-class writing.

Criticism is directed towards the frameworks that define working-class writing solely through famous histories like the English industrial revolution or the US proletarian fiction of the 1930s. These approaches tend to overlook colonial and postcolonial perspectives. Similarly, literary histories that focus solely on autonomous form often disregard the political engagements of working-class writing.

The book delves into the analysis of working-class novels and stories from Indian, Sri Lankan, and southern African writers like Mulk Raj Anand, Ambalavaner Sivanandan, and Bessie Head. It incorporates perspectives from subaltern studies and postcolonialism to broaden the Eurocentric approaches prevalent in labor history and Marxist literary criticism.

A significant argument made is that working-class writing should be viewed through the lens of ethics as well as politics.

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