Description

This book explores how working-class experience is represented in contemporary Australian literature and theatre and asks whether working-class stories continue to be underrepresented in the contemporary Australian literary scene. The book examines a wide range of examples from published Australian fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and theatre that has working-class content, and considers what kinds of representations are present in these works. Is the nuance of working-class life being included? Do the authors challenge stereotypes? What kinds of stories are privileged? Who is writing about working-class people? And what can we learn about working-class Australia from reading contemporary literature? The book also takes an intersectional approach and considers how contemporary Australian authors and playwrights such as Melissa Lucashenko, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Tony Birch and Alana Valentine show the intersections of class with race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality.