Conclusion
The conclusion considers the various legacies of proletarian modernism and the structures of feeling it supported, including the equalities legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, and the promotion of self-reflexivity in the private sphere. It is argued that focusing on this kind of intersectional proletarian literature might provide a good direction for the future of modernist studies and a means for preserving and channelling the energy and radical analyses which have given the New Modernist Studies momentum over the last fifteen years or so into a wider-ranging, democratic and more global public engagement with everyday culture. It is argued that the possible futures imagined by the modernist-proletarian texts considered in this book far exceed the capacity of state infrastructure and mainstream political imagination. The conclusion also calls for a reinterpretation of literary history to focus on subjectivity, intersubjectivity and desire in relation to everyday life, which would have real-world consequences through its relevance to an intersectional approach to politics.