class consciousness
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2022 ◽  

Sir William Gerard Golding (1911–1993), the writer of Lord of the Flies (LOTF), occupies a pivotal position within the post–World War II canon of writers. Though Golding does not seem to belong to any particular “school” or movement of fiction writers who wrote at the height of Cold War and its aftermath per se, he is a staple in high school, college, and university curricula all over the globe. His magnum opus, Lord of the Flies (1954), transformed him into a writer who commands worldwide attention. In the book he attacked the belief in any stable notions of civilization, society, and culture, and was keen to show the innate depravity of the human spirit. His trilogy To the Ends of the Earth, which comprises Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987) and Fire Down Below (1989), further explores his themes of the civilizing process and class consciousness, while the travelogue An Egyptian Journal (1985) shows his fascination for the ancient land and his journey there after he won the Nobel Prize in 1983. His famous quote about humanity, “Man produces evil as a bee produces honey,” speaks of his disbelief in the progress and the health of modern civilization and any stable notions of human progress. His Nobel Prize citation stated it was given “for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in a world of today,” thus summarizing his lifelong mission as a writer. Golding’s themes are class consciousness, human society (particularly what happens to it in isolation), modern and postmodern trauma with respect to human dreams and aspirations, and, lastly, the entire notion of “civilization” itself. His fiction has been analyzed with recourse to anthropology, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, narratology, trauma studies, and queer scholarship. Critical commentary on Golding continues to grow, especially around LOTF, due to its continued relevance owing to themes of violence, totalitarianism, queer studies, and its apocalyptic vision. It should be stressed, however, that compared to LOTF, his only play, The Brass Butterfly (1958), his Poems (1934) and his other nonfiction, such as A Moving Target (1982) and The Hot Gates (1965), the three short narratives in The Scorpion God (1971), and even his posthumous The Double Tongue (1995), have received scant attention. Though the themes of the essential drama of human conflict played against the backdrop of morality, human choice, and postmodern trauma that remain foundational to human existence might be applied to any 20thcentury writer, they are particularly germane to Golding’s works.


2021 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Anderson

Over the last decade, firms positioning themselves as craft or artisanal have proliferated in the urban environments of the Global North. Selling themselves as community hubs, friendly neighbours, anticorporate crusaders, and environmental stewards, craft industries – craft breweries, artisanal bakeries, heritage clothing manufacturers, and the like – have effectively insulated themselves from critique. Hidden beneath this veneer, however, are the accounts of countless workers detailing experiences of harassment, overwork, low pay, and discrimination. Motivated by the methodological orientation of workers’ inquiry, this article recounts attitudes and experiences offered by craftworkers and craftspeople about their working conditions, motivations, and attempts to organize in craft industries, particularly craft brewing. Worker testimony reveals a profound disconnect between the optimistic industrial mythologies offered up by craft discourse and the rigid hierarchies, unequal division of labour, and toxic cultures many observed in their workplaces. Contrary to the pervasive artisanal allure that motivates many workers to seek out work in craft brewing and similar industries, the research presented here also suggests new levels of working-class consciousness and solidarity emerging in these industries and profiles attempts by craft brewery workers to organize their workplaces and fight to improve conditions.   Au cours de la dernière décennie, les entreprises se positionnant comme artisanales ont proliféré dans les environnements urbains du Nord mondial. Se propageant comme des centres communautaires, des voisins amicaux, des militants qui luttent contre les entreprises et des gardiens de l’environnement, les industries artisanales  – brasseries, boulangeries, fabricants de vêtements patrimoniaux, etc.  – se sont efficacement isolées de la critique. Cachés sous ce vernis, cependant, se trouvent les récits d’innombrables travailleurs détaillant leur expérience de harcèlement, de surmenage, de bas salaire et de discrimination. Motivé par l’orientation méthodologique de l’enquête ouvrière, cet article raconte l’attitude et l’expérience offertes par les artisans sur leurs conditions de travail, leurs motivations et leurs tentatives d’organisation dans les industries artisanales, en particulier l’artisanat brassicole. Le témoignage des travailleurs révèle une profonde déconnexion entre les mythologies industrielles optimistes offertes par le discours artisanal et les hiérarchies rigides, la division inégale du travail et les cultures toxiques que beaucoup observent sur leur lieu de travail. Contrairement à l’attrait artisanal omniprésent qui motive de nombreux travailleurs à chercher du travail dans la brasserie artisanale et les industries similaires, la recherche présentée ici suggère également de nouveaux niveaux de conscience et de solidarité de la classe ouvrière émergeant dans ces industries et décrit les tentatives des travailleurs des brasseries artisanales d’organiser leur lieu de travail et lutter pour améliorer les conditions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Stefano Pau

RESUMEN: Tomando como punto de partida las reflexiones de estudiosos como Philippe Descola o Boaventura de Sousa Santos sobre la necesidad de repensar las relaciones entre humanos y no-humanos, con el fin de buscar alternativas al proceso autodestructivo conocido con el controvertido nombre de Antropoceno, parece oportuno dirigir la mirada hacia la selva amazónica. En efecto, el espacio amazónico es “altamente transformacional” (Rivière) y se vive en él una frecuente inestabilidad ontológica que difumina las fronteras entre las especies. Las narraciones de las vivencias de los animales, por ejemplo, no son usadas solo como simbolización de algún antagonismo o desequilibrio social, sino que son frecuentemente percibidas como realidades. En el artículo, enmarcado en el ámbito de los estudios ecocríticos, se creará un diálogo entre algunos relatos orales –cuyos protagonistas son animales– y la novela del pintor y escritor peruano César Calvo de Araújo titulada Paiche (1963), nombre que es, además, el de uno de los mayores peces de los ríos amazónicos. A través de estas creaciones de literatura oral y escrita se reflexionará sobre el tema de los desequilibrios sociales y de la conciencia de clase como medio para repensar cómo habitar la Tierra.   ABSTRACT: Taking as a starting point the considerations of scholars such as Philippe Descola and Boaventura de Sousa Santos on the need to rethink the relations between humans and non-humans in order to seek alternatives to the self-destructive process known by the controversial label of the Anthropocene, it seems appropriate to look at the Amazon rainforest. Indeed, the Amazonian space is “highly transformational” (Rivière), and there is a frequent ontological instability that blurs the boundaries between species. Narratives of animal experiences, for example, are not only used as a symbolisation of some antagonism or social inequality, but are often perceived as realities. In this article, framed in the field of ecocritical studies, a dialogue will be created between some oral stories whose protagonists are animals and the novel by the Peruvian painter and writer César Calvo de Araújo entitled Paiche (1963), which is also the name of one of the largest fish in the Amazonian rivers. Through these creations of oral and written literature, we will reflect on the theme of social inequalities and class consciousness as a means of rethinking how to inhabit the Earth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-542
Author(s):  
Sujin Lee

The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of parents’ socio-economic resources on the class consciousness and life satisfaction of unmarried adult children living with their parents. Data from the 2nd year (1999) and 22nd year (2019) of the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS) were used. The study included individuals aged under 25-44 who were unmarried, lived with their parents, and had graduated out of final school. From the 2nd year (1999), data for 491 people were extracted, and from the 22nd year (2019), data for 978 people were extracted. The information on the fathers and mothers was obtained from the information on the households data, it was responded by the unmarried children. The main results are as follows. First, one of the characteristics of unmarried children living with their parents is that the average age was higher in 2019 than in 1999. Additionally, although they work and have their own income, they live in houses owned by their parents. Their levels of satisfaction with both the living environment and family relationships were high. It was found that the influence of parents’ income increased in 2019 compared with 1999 in the class consciousness. As a factor that influences life satisfaction, the employment status of the father has a positive effect on the life satisfaction for men, whereas the employment status of the mother has a positive effect on the life satisfaction for women.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Laurel Carmichael

<p>In the early 1790s more than 300,000 Britons boycotted West Indian sugar in one of the most impressive displays of public mobilisation against the slave trade. Many of those who abstained were inspired by William Fox’s 1791 pamphlet An Address to the People of Great Britain on the Utility of Refraining from the Use of West India Sugar and Rum. The abstention movement gained momentum amidst the failures of the petition campaign to achieve a legislative end to the slave-trade, and placed the responsibility of ending slavery with all British consumers. This thesis draws from cross-disciplinary scholarship to argue that the campaign against slave sugar appealed to an idealised image of the humanitarian consumer and maligned slave. Writers such as Fox based their appeal on a sense of religious duty, class-consciousness and gendered values. Both the domestic sphere and the consumer body were transformed into sites of political activism, as abolitionists attempted to establish a direct link between the ingestion of sugar and the violence of colonial slavery. Attempts to encourage consumers’ sympathetic identification with the plight of distant slaves occurred alongside attempts to invoke horror and repulsion at slave suffering. The image of the West Indian slave presented to consumers was one shaped by fetishized European imaginings. The decision to abstain from slave sugar, therefore, was not only motivated by genuine philanthropic concerns, but the desire to protect the civilised and refined modern consumer, from the contaminating products of colonial barbarity.</p>


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