The Proletarian Answer to the Modernist Question

Modernism in the arts, and particularly literature, has often been portrayed as a middle class pursuit, with certain literary critics focusing on the ‘elitism’ of the movement. But does this give a true picture of its social composition? This week, Tom Overton talks to Nick Hubble about their new book The Proletarian Answer to the Modernist Question (https://euppublishingblog.com/2017/09/07/proletarian-modernism/), and about how the General Strike of 1926 (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/writing-the-1926-general-strike/41A4BEF1FB2C099EEEFD60A5F14C0B80), the Equal Franchise Act 1928 and the Great Depression shaped working class forms of modernism during the 1930s. (Cover image: 'Acetylene Wielding' (1917) by C.R.W. Nevinson) SELECTED REFERENCES W. H. Auden Octavia Butler LEWIS CARROLL, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland (1865) Chung Ling Soo (magician) T. S. Eliot WILLIAM EMPSON, Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity EMPSON, Some Versions of Pastoral (1935) – https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/empson-style-from-despair Ford Madox Ford JOHN GAY, The Beggar’s Opera (1728) Lewis Grassic Gibbon – https://www.grassicgibbon.com WALTER GREENWOOD, Love on the Dole (1933) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIPubjjouaA J. B. S. Haldane – https://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/digitised-archives/j-b-s-haldane Richard Hoggart NICK HUBBLE, 'Proletarian Autofiction of the 1930s' (2019) - https://socialhumanities.home.blog/2019/03/10/proletarian-autobiografiction-of-the-1930s SAMUEL HYNES, The Auden Generation (1976) – https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-auden-generation-by-samuel-hynes/ JAMES JOYCE, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916); Ulysses (1922) D. H. LAWRENCE, ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ (1909) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odour_of_Chrysanthemums D. H. LAWRENCE, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) Doris Lessing MARGARET LLEWELLYN DAVIES (ed.), Life as We Have Known It (1930) – https://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?id=4294981756 Charles Madge – http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/speccoll/collection_descriptions/madge.html Mass Observation – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/09/11/surveillance-society NAOMI MITCHISON, We Have Been Warned (1935) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Mitchison BILL NAUGHTON, Alfie (1963) – https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/dec/06/thebestevernovelform Friedrich Nietzsche GEORGE ORWELL, The Road to Wigan Pier (1936); Homage to Catalonia (1938) GEORGE ORWELL, ‘The Writer in the Witness Box’ (1940) – https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-proletarian-writer Alan Partridge Jackson Pollock Proletkult Ann Quin Karl Radek – https://www.marxists.org/archive/radek/1934/sovietwritercongress.htm Lorna Sage Stephen Spender Agnes Smith – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2082201.An_Edge_of_the_Forest JOHN SOMMERFIELD, May Day (1936) – http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/view/1262 August Strindberg Edward Upward – http://www.edwardupward.info/ H. G. Wells ELLEN WILKINSON, Clash (1929) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_(novel) Raymond Williams VIRGINIA WOOLF, Mrs. Dalloway (1925); Orlando (1928); The Years (1936); Three Guineas (1938)