Working Class Voices

Contemporary Australian poetry neglects its working§class voices. Literary journals rarely publish poetry§that focuses on working-class life and there is§little analysis of the poetics of class in§contemporary Australian scholarship on poetry. This§book argues that there is a strong and vibrant body§of contemporary Australian working-class poetry that§merits greater public attention and more incisive§critical review. This book offers an analysis of the§content and poetics of contemporary Australian§working-class poetry and of the context in which it§has been produced. It presents works that to date§have been ignored or dismissed by the literary§mainstream. It proposes that working-class poetry can§be regarded as a distinctive genre of poetry, and§argues that working-class poetry provides important§insights into class inequalities. In short, this book§creates a poetic for approaching the academic§analysis of working-class cultural discourse. This§book should be useful to anyone interested in§Australian poetry and working-class studies. The book§is written in an accessible style that will also§hopefully appeal to readers outside of educational§institutions.