ENG 255 E NOBLE BODIES, SHABBY PEOPLE: SEX, CLASS, AND BODILY POLITICS IN WORKING-CLASS LITERATURE

This course interrogates how narratives of bodies and sexual behavior have been used to construct and justify class divisions. We will look at works by D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, and Agnes Smedley, among others, examining how sexual norms and expectations are used to construct contradictory perceptions of working-class bodies and capabilities. In challenging these stereotypes, working-class literature provides a means of resisting sexual and class-based oppression.