Like the rest of the Furman community, the students in the course ENG 348 had Labor Day off. But many of them were probably reflecting on the purpose of the holiday \u2013 recognizing the contributions and achievements of American workers \u2013 as they continued working through their reading list of American working-class literature.<\/p>\n
By the time the long weekend came, the students in the course designed and led by Timothy Helwig<\/a>, a visiting professor of English, had already studied \u201cLetters from an American Farmer,\u201d written by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in the 18th century, as well as 19th-century works by Alexis de Tocqueville, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. Still ahead on the syllabus were Walt Whitman and Herman Melville and 20th century authors like Zora Neale Hurston and Raymond Carver. But most of the other names on the \u201cAmerican Working-Class Literature\u201d reading list may have been unfamiliar to Helwig\u2019s students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s writing that is by, for and about the multiracial working classes,\u201d Helwig said. \u201cIt captures their lived experience and treats them with respect and dignity. The lesser-known works may not be as polished at times, but they can be just as important to study. A lot of the working-class literature from the 19th century was the popular literature \u2013 it\u2019s what people were actually reading.\u201d<\/p>\n The readings include \u201cLife in the Iron-Mills<\/a>,\u201d a novella depicting factory life in the 1860s, which is considered one of the earliest American realist works and a keystone of American working-class literature.<\/p>\n The author, Rebecca Harding Davis, \u201cwas a very privileged young woman,\u201d Helwig said, \u201cand although she was not personally a member of the working classes, she empathized with them and walked among them.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis and her peers rejected stereotypes that still persist today \u2013 \u201cthat the working classes are prone to criminality, inebriation and mental illness, they\u2019re untrustworthy, and ironically they\u2019re lazy, even though they\u2019re some of the hardest-working people in our nation,\u201d said Helwig. \u201cWorking-class literature also resists the kind of paternalism and platitudes that the middle classes tend to direct at the working classes.\u201d<\/p>\n The relatively new field of study has emerged only in the last few decades as literary criticism itself has paid more attention to class issues, said Helwig.<\/p>\n The students will benefit from The Furman Advantage<\/a>, an educational framework that provides every student an individualized educational pathway and opportunities for high-impact learning experiences, by conducting independent research for an analysis of class representation and differences in a work of fiction. In keeping with the university\u2019s vision, mission and values<\/a>, they will also have opportunities to reflect on the world and their place in it. One novel in particular has a local focus: \u201cBastard out of Carolina,\u201d a 1992 novel that observes class, race and sexuality in Furman\u2019s hometown of Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to study these works,\u201d Helwig said. \u201cThey encourage us to think about our class identities and how class does impact everyday lives, including our students here at Furman. It gets us to talk about these things.\u201d<\/p>\n Will Sander \u201926, a politics and international affairs major minoring in poverty studies, is ready for those discussions.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important that we take the time to develop empathy and understanding of the lived experience of those who struggle to meet their basic needs,\u201d he said. \u201cThis intentional and focused extension of our humanity to others is the essential feature of literature, and I\u2019m very excited to study their perpetual struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n Helwig said he hopes that students learn to think critically about class issues in America and the way our material conditions impact our lives.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the strengths of our Furman students is a great capacity for empathy,\u201d he said. \u201cAs they think through these issues, they\u2019ll have a place to direct that empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Often dismissed or ignored by critics, American working-class literature treats the lived experiences of its subjects with respect and dignity and can provide insight into class issues, as Timothy Helwig\u2019s students are discovering this semester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,61,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-the-furman-advantage","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rejecting stereotypes<\/h3>\n
Empathy and understanding<\/h3>\n