Jeremy Seabrook and the British Working Class .

Abstract

The subjectivity of the working class forms a central part of all Marxist political economy, and all political groups and parties of the Left claim some access to it; many claim to speak with its voice. Yet the texture of working class experience is something which is rarely questioned. In political and theoretical discourse, working class life is, most often, sloganised or interpreted through highly formalistic and simplified frameworks. These frameworks rarely take issue with the daily lives and felt experience and ideas of people. The value of Jeremy Seabrook's books lies in the access they provide to the complexity of working class life; to the importance of language, nuance and metaphor; to the awareness they demonstrate of historical shift in sensibilities and the importance of this for political and social change. Yet his view is also flawed.