Working-class representation traps the speaker in an assigned social place
Evidence
The temptation for Smith was always to fit into the easy role of working-class spokesman, speaking from an assigned place in a given social world. Smith played with that role (“the white crap that talks back”, “Prole Art Threat”, “Hip Priest”) whilst refusing to actually play it. He knew that representation was a trap; social realism was the enemy because in supposedly “merely” representing the social order, it actually constituted it. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1101
Categorization
- SEED: A possible article angle: why the ‘authentic working-class voice’ role conferred by cultural institutions is itself a cage that any serious working-class artist must refuse.
- XREF: connects to: Regional accents are erased through class-aspirational self-suppression — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1348; Social categories function as cognitive tools that position the self comparatively — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2716; Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide…, 284 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Regional accents are erased through class-aspirational self-suppression
#expands(0.82) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1348 - Regional accents signal perceived social class and cultural displacement to listeners.
#corroborates(0.80) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 48 - Social categories function as cognitive tools that position the self comparatively
#corroborates(0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2716 - Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types
#complicates(0.78) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 284