Narratives from Below

doi:10.1017/9781009292863.012

Chapter 8 - Narratives from Below

Working-Class Short Fiction

from Part II - Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023

Owen Clayton

Edited by

Michael J. Collins and

Gavin Jones

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Michael J. Collins: Affiliation:
King's College London
Gavin Jones: Affiliation:
Stanford University

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Summary

The short story became a popular form among twentieth-century working-class writers, who faced challenges in maintaining a literary career while short on time and energy. Meridel Le Sueur, Tillie Olsen, Raymond Carver, and Bobby Ann Mason also found the short story to be an effective form for representing the experiences of those who were alienated within US society. This chapter argues that the comparably abrupt and disconnected nature of the short story parallels an aesthetic of disconnectedness that is prevalent in the work of these four writers, each of whom portrays working-class life as alienated from the mainstream culture, and whose characters are often emotionally stunted as a result. While the later writings of Carver and Mason reduce the earlier emphasis on economics and class struggle found in Olsen and, especially, Le Sueur, they all share a sense of the emotional damage caused by being working class in the United States.

Keywords

Meridel Le Sueur Tillie Olsen Raymond Carver Bobby Ann Mason working-class literature working-class short stories American literature alienation social class

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story , pp. 131 - 145

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009292863.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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