Writing the Working Class and the Troubles in the North of Ireland is the first monograph-length study to assess the role that class has played in both the literary and dramatic construction of the Troubles (1969-1998). Through its attention to issues of form, audience and authorship, as well as the intracategorical complexity of the working class, the monograph argues that reductive representations of working-class communities serve an ideological purpose, and that the capacity to challenge dominant narratives is contained by the literary mode of production. The analysis is underpinned by readings of space and place, with the urban centres of Belfast and Derry examined in addition to working-class “ghettoes” and homes, and considerable attention is given to the location of the writer and the real or imagined audience. Drawing upon a range of theoretical paradigms and schools of thought – including Marxism, feminism, intersectionality, postcolonialism, queer theory, critical race theory – the book compares a broad selection of representative texts and develop a fuller understanding of the complexities of class in Northern Ireland. With a growing interest in representations of class within literature, this book is of interest to scholars of Irish literature and drama, as well as international scholars of cultural studies, labour history and working-class literature.
