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Weeks 1, 2, 3 & 6

Australia is not egalitarian. Australians are ranked in classes. 52% identify themselves as middle class, 42% identify themselves as working class and 2% identify themselves as upper class. (Research by ANU – surveyed 1200 Australians)

Tim Winton – The C word (article)

The gap between the rich and the poor is growing in Australia. Writing was a class-bound occupation.

Working poor – 13% of Australia’s population.

Marxist Theory:

Karl Marx – German philosopher; son of a lawyer; lived in Great Britain for many years in political exile.

Class struggle

Ideology

False consciousness

Alienation- workers are ‘deskilled’; cogs in the machine

Competition

Reification – loss of full humanity

Proletariat

Bourgeoisie

Capitalism:

Ruling class – owners of the means of production; earn profit from the labor of the working-class; people whose only means of making a living is to sell their ability of the employer. This includes those workers who are not themselves in paid employment. Unemployed workers who therefore have to try to survive in meager social security payments are also part of the working class.

Strike: an action in which workers deliberately and collectively withdraw their labor in order to protest about conditions, wages or more general industrial and even political issues.

Lockout: an action taken by an employer in which workers are prevented from going to work – usually as a result of an industrial dispute.

My brilliant friend (NOVEL)

Working class writing

upward special mobility

Plebians

Aspirations of ownership of the means of production

wealth

Neopolitan-ness

work

Contrast with wealthy Neapolitans e.g trip to Via Chiaia

Gender Relations:

Agency and assertiveness of girls

Repressed by social conventions and expectations e.g education

Lila- 'uncomfortable'; Elena-much more 'disciplined' (Ferrante 2005)

Exploration of puberty and sexuality

Empathy with women in the neighborhood e.g Melina Cappuccio

Elena encouraged to pursue her studies; Lila 'forced' into marriage at the age of 16

When Lila's pace becomes unsustainable, the reader grabs onto Elena. But if Elena falls apart, then the reader relies on Lila (Ferrante226)

Female Friendship:

Emotional centre of the novel

Elena and Lila - competitions, supporters of each other

Elena - meta-narrative that comments on the anxieties associated with her friendship with Lila.

Lila remains tied to the neighborhood whereas Elena wants to escape

Shared copy of Louise May Alcott's little women - inspirational for both girls

Living vicariously through one another

Mother - Daughter relationshi[s O

Obsessed and repulsed mothers

Mothers and ather try to prevent their daughters from getting an education; continuting is dependant on getting good grades

Most children in the neigborhood follow in their footseps

shame

Construction of the teacher as the 'ideal mother'. Lila's mother, Nunizia was illeretare and frightened by her daughters self-education

Education

World of education is juxtaposed with life in the neighborhood (rione)

Difficulties for working class students when participating in classes e.g or A-cle

The reality of Lena's life in the neighborhood require other words

The school - a progressive national future

Teacher dismissal of 'the plebs'

Allegiance with class background embracing world of the elite

Home life versus school life

Education is Lena's 'personal wealth'

Language

Langauge choices are used narrative devices

Italian and dialects

The use on one or other of these linguistic codes 'align what you speak with who you are, where you come from, and what type of life you can - or should 0- lead'

Geographical and social locations

Lila and Elena - both can speak Italian; their parents do not speak Italian

How is dialect used in the novel? When do the characters speak Italian (Cavanaugh 2016)