Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Analyze literature to identify the differences and similarities in working-class experiences across time and national contexts.
2. Identify recurring themes within working-class literature both within and across national contexts.
3. Identify differences in style and form in working class literature that are shaped by national status, traditions, and/or cultures.
4. Identify the variety of contexts—historical, cultural, sociological, and political—under which literature is produced and distributed.
5. Produce critical, reflective, and/or creative writing about working-class literature.

Class meeting time consists of lecture, group discussion, and small group discussion. Meeting time may also include the following:  writing; performing; viewing film; listening to performances, guest speakers, or audio recordings.

Assessment tools may include
• informal responses such as quizzes, study questions or journals;
• participation in small-and full- group discussion;
• in-class and out-of-class writing;

• formal academic essays;
• presentations by individuals and groups;
• short and long essay examinations;
• close reading exercises using support/evidence;
• portfolios of creative writing or visual art forms;
• dance, theatrical or spoken-word performances;
• academic essays that evaluate various interpretations of a text and their relative validity. Both instructor and peer evaluation may be incorporated into the assessment process.

The course will introduce and foster understanding of:

• the confines and fluidity of class identity in and the influence of these questions of identity in literature by/about the working class

• ways and reasons that working-class literature has traditionally been marginalized

• stereotypes and generalizations of working-class as primarily male, white and industrial, and the response of working-class literature to such generalizations

• the ways that working-class literature identifies intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, educational status, and sexual orientation with class identity

• the relationship between traditional notions of literary genres (poetry, fiction, drama) and forms such as letters, memoirs, oral history, songs, speeches, leaflets

• rhetorical considerations, especially with regards to socio-historical context, intended audience and political purpose of working-class texts

• the relationships between creativity and productivity, especially within the context of power and ownership

• themes of power and powerlessness

• the significance of linguistic styles in representing power relationships