From: "Sally Evans" <[log in to unmask]>
> Surely workingclass writing is out of date as a concept. There isnt a
> working class in the old sense.
But there are writers alive and well who would certainly think of themselves
as coming from a working-class background.
From: "Roger Collett" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 11:04 AM
> Subject: Re: New beats (???)
>
>
>> Which current British authors would you consider to be working class then
>> Dave? Good writers that is, worthy of note.
>>
>> Roger
Well, not British but Scottish, but Tom Leonard, Jim Kelman, Alasdair Gray
(who went to Whitehill Senior Secondary), Angus Nicolson, Steve Mulrine for
starters
Oddly, *not Liz Lochead, though she can project the persona, and in a
complicated way, Chistopher Brookmyre, especially if we take _Etched With A
Hard Lead Pencil_ as to a degree autobiographical.
It becomes more complexified if you match class to political orientation.
Easily the hardest Left of the Glasgow SF writers is Ken MacLeod, and he'd
probably throw up if you simplistically described him as working class, but
a lot of his writing is rooted in a seventies class analysis.
It's not that managing to actually *get to university stops you being
working-class, but it sure as hell complicates things for writers.
Altogether deep and strange.
R.
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