From Dialectics to Dancing
Reading, Writing and the Experience of Everyday Life in the Diaries of Frank P. Forster
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7798524 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cath Feely (University of Manchester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 90-110 |
| Publication date | 2010-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbp030 |
| PMID | 20514740 |
| OpenAlex | W1991621873 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 10 |
This article is an examination of the reading and writing practices of Frank Forster (1910-98), a casual labourer and Communist autodidact, as revealed in the diaries he kept between 1934 and 1938. One of the most influential texts Forster encountered during this period was The Positive Outcome of Philosophy, written by Joseph Dietzgen (1828-88), a German tanner who had also independently developed a Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism. Dietzgen's work on the relationship between thought and experience appealed enormously to autodidact sensibilities. Recording his reading at the same time as other activities, such as cinema attendance and dancing, Forster was able to reshape Dietzgen's ideas so that he could apply them to the issues most immediately important to him, particularly the pursuit of social and sexual experience. This seemingly idiosyncratic understanding of ‘the dialectic’ can only be understood in the particular context of Forster's life, locality and time. His diaries deserve wider attention as compelling evidence of how one individual combined theory with everyday life to create his own form of ‘self-help’.
Aesthetics · Art · Casual · Context (archaeology) · Dialectic · Dialectical materialism · Epistemology · Literature · Marxist philosophy · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process) · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
The History of Everyday Life
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Leisure, citizenship and working-class men in Britain, 1850–1945
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Reading Revolutions
Joseph Dietzgen and the History of Marxism
We Called Each Other Comrade
Young Women, Work, and Leisure in Interwar England
Culture, Ideology and Politics
The Cheese and the Worms
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2021 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |