Industrial Literature And Authors

In recent years, the field of literary studies at the international level has become more involved in the analysis of the so-called industrial literature, a literary genre that focuses on the literary representation of factory work and workers’ alienation. This book engages in the ongoing debate by offering a narratological analysis of Italian industrial novels in particular, while taking into consideration their paratexts and interrogating the possibility of the presence of a testimonial intent in the text. The study reconstructs the connections between visions of factory utopias and Italian industrial literature, starting with an overview of said visions of utopia and how they came into being in Europe following the industrial revolution. It then proceeds by exploring the relationship between the twentieth-century Italian entrepreneur Adriano Olivetti and Italian industrial authors, and the influence that Olivetti’s visions of factory utopia had on these writers and how they perceived themselves as witnesses of factory life and workers’ alienation. In analyzing these texts, and particularly the novels by Paolo Volponi and Ottiero Ottieri, the book focuses on the previously overlooked representation of the self in industrial literature and on how this self expresses the need for testimony.

"In recent years, the field of literary studies at international level has become more and more involved in the analysis of the so-called industrial literature, a literary genre which focuses on the literary representation of factory work and workers' alienation. This book engages in the on-going debate by offering a narratological analysis of Italian industrial novels in particular, while taking into consideration their paratexts and interrogating the possibility of the presence of a testimonial intent in the text. The study reconstructs the connections between visions of factory utopias and Italian industrial literature, starting with an overview on said visions of utopia and on how they came into being in Europe following the industrial revolution. It then proceeds by exploring the relationship between the twentieth-century Italian entrepreneur Adriano Olivetti and Italian industrial authors, and the influence that Olivetti's visions of factory utopia had on these writers and on how they perceived themselves as witnesses of factory life and workers' alienation. In analyzing these texts, and particularly the novels by Paolo Volponi and Ottiero Ottieri, the book focuses on the previously overlooked representation of the self in industrial literature, and on how this self expresses the need for testimony"--

Transatlantic approach: This project explores British and American texts in conversation together. Use of archival materials, which is relatively unusual within Gothic studies, and even in literary studies more generally. A focus on poetry, drama, and periodical writing, genres that are often ignored in the study of the Gothic. A focus on women’s work (both on the labor of women and on texts by women). A focus on local Gothic (especially in Lowell and Manchester), with a connection to larger international trends of the genre.

Working Women, Literary Ladies explores the simultaneous entry of working-class women in the United States into wage-earning factory labor and into opportunities for mental and literary development. It is the first book to examine the fascinating exchange between the work and literary spheres for laboring women in the rapidly industrializing America of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As women entered the public sphere as workers, their opportunities for intellectual growth expanded, even as those same opportunities were often tightly circumscribed by the factory owners who were providing them. These developments, both institutional and personal, opened up a range of new possibilities for working-class women that profoundly affected women of all classes and the larger social fabric. Cook examines the extraordinary and diverse literary productions of these working women, ranging from their first New England magazine of belles lettres, The Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of female factory life, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's fictional account of sweatshop workers in New York, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. This vital new book traces the hopes and tensions generated by the expectations of working-class women as they created a wholly new way of being alive in the world.

This book presents a state-of-the-art overview of the relationship between globalization studies and literature and literary studies, and the bearing that they have on each other. It engages with the manner in which globalization is thematized in literary works; examines the relationship between globalization theory and literary theory; and discusses the impact of globalization processes on the production and reception of literary texts. Suman Gupta argues that while literature has registered globalization processes in relevant ways, there has been a missed articulation between globalization studies and literary studies. Some of the ways in which this slippage is now being addressed, and may be taken forward, are indicated. In the course of fleshing out this argument such themes as the following are discussed: the manner in which anti-globalization protests and world cities have figured in literary works, digitization has remoulded concepts of texts and text editing, theories of postmodernism and postcolonialism that are familiar in literary studies have diverged from and converged with globalization studies, English and Comparative/World Literature as institutional disciplinary spaces are being reconfigured, and industries to do with the circulation of literature are becoming globalized. This book is intended for university level students and teachers, researchers, and other informed readers with an interest in the above issues, and serves both as a survey of the field and an intervention within it.

Bringing together essays from leading experts who analyze how the landscapes, images, social dynamics, and economies of the industrial city have changed through boom and bust, this volume covers a wide range of subjects, from car cities to steel towns, from visualization of industrial cities in avant-garde art to the role of industrial heritage in urban regeneration. In total, Industrial Cities makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how the past shapes the future; it will be of interest not only to urban and economic historians, but also to social geographers and policy makers.