ENGL 1186 Lit Core: Working Class: Stories of Labor, Class, and Privilege in America
This course focuses on American literature about work, especially blue-collar work, service work, and women's work. In reading working lives, we will also be reading national narratives about class, gender, race, and immigration. In diverse texts ranging from Walt Whitman to Gish Jen, we will ask how power and privilege are represented in this literature. What are the underlying assumptions? How have contemporary class divides taken root from our history? By looking at style, voice, figurative language, and structure, we will discover how writers strategically shape meaning across genres.
Course overview
- Department
- English
- School
- MCAS
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Undergraduate
Catalog details
- Satisfies core
- Cultural Diversity,Literature
Requirements fulfilled
- University Core: Cultural Diversity (All undergraduates)
- University Core: Literature (All undergraduates)
Course evaluations
- Course rating
- 3.78 / 5 · Very Good
- Instructor rating
- 4.11 / 5 · Very Good
- Terms evaluated
- 2
| Term | Instructor | Course overall | Instructor overall | Well organized | Clear learning objectives | Intellectually challenging | Helpful assignments | Applicable beyond course | Attendance necessary | Weekly effort | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Suzanne Matson | 3.9 | 4.2 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 3.9 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 1–3 hrs/week | 20 of 24 |
| Spring 2022 | Suzanne Matson | 3.7 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 1–3 hrs/week | 16 of 32 |