“It’s the mass that counts”: Striking energies in working-class fiction

Abstract

This article considers the way in which the political ecologies of coal and oil overdetermine the representation of labour struggles in Ellen Wilkinson’s Clash (1929) and Ralph de Boissière’s Crown Jewel (1952). The historical strikes around which these novels are organized were sparked by conflict over working conditions in, respectively, the coal industry in the UK and the oil industry in Trinidad. Analysing the relationship between the energies generated by mass strike action and the narrative energetics of fiction, the article explores how Wilkinson and de Boissière reshape the novel form in their efforts to represent working-class life.

Keywords:

• Ellen Wilkinson
• Clash
• Ralph de Boissière
• Crown Jewel
• world literature
• General Strike
• coal
• oil
• comparative literary studies
• working-class fiction