What marks Hard Times as middle class? Class Discussion reflection from July 8.

What marks Hard Times as a middle class novel? Thompson's essays on the working class kicked off the discussion in the seminar on Friday.  We talked about the dangers of selective bias and the bias of the evidence itself when researching and writing about a people in the past.  Who gets the space and place in the books to articulate their experience ultimately crafts the way later thinkers understand them.  Who were the laborers of Dickens' time?  Did their hard lot in life improve over the period of prosperity's fits and bursts in the 1800's?  There is too the issue of geography and type of work to consider as well.  A shoemaker in London lived a different strife and joy than a factory worker in Newcastle.  So, experience is wide, varied, and complex.  Yet, not all is a muddle. 

There is statistical data that shows that material comforts did become more prevalent. (Thompson)  At the same time, workers are reporting increased sense of misery, exploitation, and insecurity. In response, friendly societies emerge.  Ways of coming together to seek out and find that thing beyond the material (entertainment, political representation, spirituality?) gain in visible importance as a way to overcome the miseries.  By stepping outside of the individual's own narrative of trouble and hardship through the friendly societies they could understand the needs of other people.  In short, according to our discussion, the collectiveness we see here leads to a love and kindness model. 

Which brings around the dichotomy that I think explains the answer to the initial question.  The stress and tension between middle class striving of the individual against the collective community building of working class peoples.  Thompson, in the selected articles, posits that middle class values are individual focused and the working classes are collective.  While Dickens does draw a happy narrative for the collective group in the circus peoples, this is largely a narrative showing the individual.  It is in the stories and complications of the individuals that Hard Times' story is told. 

Discussion on Periodical Research:
Why do we look at periodicals from the time of the novel being studied?
-contextualizes the novel, its ideas, themes, characters, themes, and images
-place for students to understand what the original reading experience would have been like
-reconnects to the publication roots


Open Resource Searches:
* Use the Dickens NEH website
* Use Google Books
- can be messy but also lead to unexpected finds
-Play around with keywords and synonyms
-spend time looking around
      Belgravia                              Chamber's
     Cornhill                                 Cassell's Family Magazine
     Calcutta Reviews                  St. Paul's
      Blackwoods                         The Strand's
*Use Wikipedia
-Go to an entry such as Punch and scroll down to the external links to find full text links
*Use Project Gutenberg