Deciphering Working Class Culture thru Class Experiences in Literature and Soccer - Coursework Example

Deciphering Working Culture thru Experiences in Literature and Soccer Submitted by: Submitted In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements in [Subject] [Date] Introduction Working class culture refers to a broad range of culture created or is popular among working class people. The difficulty of ascertaining and understanding the nature of working class culture is because of the geographical diversity and divergent historical development of the working class people. Consider for example the difference between the communist class-struggling proletariat identified and glorified in socialist countries with the rather folksy culture of the working class people in capitalist, consumer-oriented America. Differences are further widened with differential social, political and economic changes and the increased mobility afforded by technology. The proposal is made stating that working class culture can be understood by knowing and appreciating working class experiences in fields such as history, literature, cinema and soccer. This paper seeks to determine whether this approach is able to provide a single unifying thread common to all forms of working class culture which would help greatly in understanding its nature and form. Class experiences in literature and soccer are explored and analyzed on whether they shed light on the working class phenomenon. Finding Working Class Identity in Literature and Sports Can we find working class identity in the portrayals contained in literature? Working class identity is often associated with a person’s economic condition. Members of the working class are said to be those who produce the enormous wealth of capitalists and of nations but received only a small part of that wealth as wages. As Arbor (1994) had put it, they are the workers (slave, free, immigrants, locals, men and women) who share a common place of production with little control over the pace, content and products of their work and are not anyone’s boss. Working class culture and its members are considered almost diametrically opposed to high culture associated with the elite. Nonetheless, confining working class identity to economic conditions is limited as it also includes lived experiences, expectations, legacies and set of relationships. In retrospect, one cannot establish find a single discreet identity in working class culture but would instead find an uneasy and unstable amalgam of hybrid and fluid multiple identities. Working class literature and soccer involvement serves to illuminate those experiences, relationships and diversity by revealing the intricate world of class experience as it is lived by working class people. Will an analysis of the class experience narrated in working class literature and involvement in soccer enable us to understand the working class culture? Structuralism in literary theory and sociology states that there is an underlying unchanging structure in related narrative materials and events. Everything is governed by specific rules which sort of like forms a ‘grammar in literature’. When these rules are learned, one can identify the underlying and unchanging structure of the text and gain valuable insight into the novelty value of the literary piece and the event. Applying this in our case, a critical look into the class experiences narrated in the literature and development and involvement in soccer could provide valuable insight into the core values of working class culture. Nevertheless, one must be careful as Post-structuralism would tell us that our observation may be biased and misconstrued as we try to interpret the meaning of the text and events using our own value system. Class Experience in Working Class Literature To determine whether one can understand working class culture by knowing class experiences portrayed in literature, we must first identify what these experiences are and determine what they are trying to tell us. It should be pointed out that one should be wary of adopting a strictly formalist approach to literature where text is considered as an isolated artefact because working class literature is by no means a work of high imagination written in quiet rooms. One should realize that most of the events reflect the common experiences of the working class people at a particular place and particular time. Working class literature is teeming with stories of the workers’ struggle for their rights in a capitalistic system that enriched a few but exploited many. The lack of control in their work, insufficient wages and poor working conditions have ‘inspired’ working class writers to reveal these conditions, its effects on the people and the worker’s response to them. Working class people then not only became producers of merchandise but also producers of culture. The content of this type of literature documents and represents the struggles and class conflicts and as such, it can be considered as a literature of resistance, struggle and endurance (Clurman, 2005). Common in working class literature is the portrayal of the physical body at work and main the occupational risks and hazard they face in the workplace. The writing style usually emphasizes on the workers body – hard worn out muscles, missing fingers or swollen legs. The subject portrayed or discussed is also unique as it touches on matters considered to be inappropriate for literary discourse. Here we see the fatigue in working in laundry shops, the dangers in steel production and the difficulty in giving birth. Here we see people’s perception of their work and personal conditions (Coles and Zandy, 2005) Tales of hardships and frustrations of the worker may constitute a significant part of working class literature but by no account do these dominate the scenery. Within these stories of occupational risks, meagre income, unconcerned management and tiring work comes also the illustration of the working man as a deeply conscious and discerning being who take pride and dignity in their craft whereas in other literature, they are portrayed as beings almost incapable of thinking, aspiring, dreaming and just about doing anything except on their job. In poetry, reportage, memoir, letters, speeches and songs often filled with lyrical and feisty language, the working class voices out not only their frustrations but their political thoughts, philosophies of freedom and equality and wisdom on simple matters such as providing for daily needs (Dana, 1996). There is no single working-class literary aesthetic because of the diversity of the working class population. As new awareness took place, writers rewrote conventions, cross genre boundaries and experimented with new forms such as the proletariat portrait, blues poetry and revolutionary sonnet (Zweig, 2000). From a structuralist point of view, however, we can find a single unifying theme in the literature. The underlying and unchanging nature of working class literature is one that consciously begins with the perspective and circumstances of the least powerful and confronts the contradictions and paradoxes between professed values with real situations. It has the affinity to discuss class struggle brought about by unequal economic conditions. This common unifying theme in working class literature enables us to understand that working class culture is a belief system born out of experiences largely determined by productive relations. It is an embodiment of values arising from the rise of class consciousness. How does this information enable us to properly identify whether a trait or value belongs to working class or not? There are pieces of which takes workers as its subject does not necessarily reflect or promote identifiably working-class interests or values. One example is where they are portrayed as happily going about their work humming and contented. Workers literatures are those that predominantly feature the true problems and as against the imagined characteristics of working people. Its use value as a protest, celebration, testimony, affirmation, transformation and call to action is easily discerned. In the same sense, one could identify working class trait and values by using the experiences and the traits of the working class depicted in authentic worker’s literature. Union and Soccer Previously, soccer was only a game practiced by a few young men in private schools but the practice grew to involve urban and rural working class who have expressed delight and eagerness for the sports. This dispersion of soccer from the fields of elite and middle classes to the working classes is a worldwide phenomenon. In the United Kingdom, soccer transformed from a past time of the high classes to a favourite physical activity of the masses most of which are said to belong to the working class (Baker, 1979). Australia, United States and Canada too experienced such a development (Wright, 1995). Knowing that soccer is a popular domain of the working class, what concerns us now is whether class experience in this sports can illuminate us on the intricacies of working class culture The workplace had formed one of the main institutions around which the game soccer had developed for it was a convenient location for making personal and social connections. It also provided leisure for the common employee and a place to build bonds of friendship and camaraderie. Employers were also eager to promote the activity and teams were often named after their company, type of employment or employer (Wright, 1995) Nevertheless, soccer became a crucial pot for the development of trade unionism. Employers saw in soccer a possible antidote to the growing unrest brought about by the deepening social divisions between employees and the employers. Indeed, many became enthusiast of the sport after having been introduced to it in workplaces such as large factories and railways workshop. Employers have used workplace football as a method of increasing managerial authority and social control over the workforce. More importantly, it cut across union attempts to unionise the workforce by improving the identity between workers and management and securing loyalty to the firm. Soccer was also used as a popular method of disseminating middle-class ideals of sport The distinctive aspect of soccer in the workplace was that it became aligned with working-class culture as workplace soccer was embraced by unions. This had a number of implications including that workplace soccer was used as a way of continuing the political and industrial struggles of the workplace. Previously, employers were adamant on stopping any unionization and often threatened dismissal for those who pursue this course of action. When workplace soccer came under the supervision of unions, the solidarity found in the sport became a leverage used by the unions to demand better working conditions and compensation. When the union was in control, workplace sport was intended to instil values of class and union loyalty. Unions used soccer clubs to promote the view that winning is secondary only to cohesion and cooperation among the members of the working class. The soccer club became an institution that helped to develop and maintain to working-class identity (Zweig, 2000). While it is not readily apparent, the class experience in soccer shows us one important feature of working class culture which is collective action. Popular among Marxist and Leninists, the propensity for collective action in achieving working conditions improvements is one of the key concepts promoted in working class culture. Collective action through unions has become a trademark and identity of working class culture. Conclusion Class experiences in the working class literature and sport provide valuable insights into the intricacies of working class culture. Literature informs us that the culture of the working class can be differentiated from other types of culture relationship based upon the fundamental reality of the relations of production. An analysis of soccer reveals another important cultural dimension which is the use of collective action. A study of these two fields illuminates the workings and characteristics of the culture where workers are said to belong. Reference: Arbor, Ann (1994). Talking about Class and Literature. MI: Firebrand Books. Baker, W. (1979). The Making of a Working-Class Football Culture in Victorian England. Journal of Social History, Vol. 13, No. 2. pp. 241-251. Christopher Wright (1995). The Management of Labour: A History of Australian Employers. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 21-22. Clurman, H. (2005). Deciphering Lefty Literature. New York: Grove Press. Coles, N. and Zandy J. (2005) American Working Class Literature. Oxford: University Press. Dana, F. (1996). In Search of the Working Class: Essays in American Labor History and Politic. Industrial & Labor Relations Review; Apr 1996; 49, 3; ABI/INFORM Global. Janet Zandy (2004). Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Zweig, M. (2000). The Working Class Majority: Best Kept Secrets. Ithaca, NY: ILR/Cornell University Press. Read More