Poetry of Labour and (Dis)articulation of Class

China's worker-poets and the cultural politics of boundaries

Bibliographic Data

ID12423243
AuthorsWanning Sun (0000-0002-8687-3739, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume21
Issue78
Pages993-1010
Publication date2012-07-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary China (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1067-0564 • E-ISSN: 1469-9400
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10670564.2012.701036
OpenAlexW2090178727
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Dagong' means 'working for the boss', and bespeaks the commodification of labour. Over the past two and a half decades, a minor literary genre has emerged from this dagong community, documenting the crushing effect of the industrial machine on the body and soul of rural migrant workers. This paper considers the paradoxical process of class formation and class dissipation through the prism of the debates and commentaries surrounding workers' poetry from elite cultural institutions and worker-poets themselves. This discussion suggests that these commentaries and debates constitute both class articulations and disarticulations, and together they point to the precariousness of the formation of worksing-class consciousness in contemporary China. © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Art · Articulation (sociology · China · Class (philosophy · Literature · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy

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