Working-Class Rhetorics: Contemporary Memoirs and Analyses

As the recent pandemic illustrated, many folks are only one or two paychecks away from bankruptcy. The economic disparities made starkly clear in the wake of shutdowns have brought home the need for thinking critically about class in ways that many U.S. citizens have traditionally resisted. This collection of memoirs and cultural analyses by established and newer scholars from a variety of disciplines seeks to reintroduce class in sophisticated, yet accessible, ways so that students may increase their critical literacy and consider the power of rhetoric to fight for equitable distribution of income and class power.

Contributors are: : Sarah Attfield, Jennifer Beech, Phil Bratta, Ryan Cooper Carl, Christina V. Cedillo, José M. Cortez, William DeGenaro, David Engen, Kelli R. Gill, Abby Graves, Matthew Wayne Guy, Katherine Highfill, Nancy Mack, Heather Palmer, Irvin Peckham, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, Philip L. Simpson, William Thelin and Edward J. Whitelock.

Jennifer Beech, Ph.D. (2001), The University of Southern Mississippi, is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is the author of Brill’s Guidebook for Teaching and Engaging with Critical Whiteness Studies, and has also co-chaired the Working-Class Culture and Pedagogy Standing Group for CCCC.

Matthew Wayne Guy, Ph.D. (2004), Louisiana State University, is Associate Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he teaches literary theory. He has published and presented on pop culture, phenomenology, ethics, and the works of Emmanuel Levinas.