Working class, writing class
Saturday 02 November 2019, 14:00
Coronet Theatre, Studio
Not so long ago, society experienced a collective hallucination and believed we were “all becoming becoming middle class”. Years of austerity and economic uncertainties have left us with the stark reality of social class divide. Social class disparities (and the increasing lack of social mobility) deeply affect relationships between people and between generations. Meanwhile, the working class struggles to forge a new sense of identity amid the never-ending transformations of work conditions. In this panel discussion, two top-class writers talk social class from a British and an Italian perspective, how social class intertwines with the current political and cultural wars (just to name one, Brexit), and how novels can address this.
This event will be in English.
Running time: 80 minutes.
Speakers
Alberto Prunetti
is an Italian writer and translator. He is the author of Amianto. Una storia operaia and most recently of the novel 108 metri. The new working class hero, set among the underclass living in an English town. He contributes to magazines and online newspapers including Carmilla, Jacobin Italia, La Repubblica, and Il Manifesto. He is the editorial director of Working Class, a book series for Edizioni Alegre.
Anthony Cartwright
is a London-based novelist. He worked as an English teacher in schools for over ten years. His novels include How I Killed Margaret Thatcher, Iron Towns, and a novel co-written with Italian writer Gian Luca Favetto in 2015 (Il giorno perduto – Racconto di un viaggio all'Heysel). His latest book is a “Brexit novel”, The Cut. Jonathan Coe said he is “a writer with an unblinking sense of Britain as it is today”.
Chair
Paolo Nelli
Paolo Nelli is an London-based writer and teaches Italian language and culture at King’s College.