Abstract
James Barke’s literary imagination of working lives is primarily concerned with how different modes of labour generate a tension between refusal of work and the material constraints on fully engaging in it. Putting into conversation the Marxist autonomist method of ‘compositionism’ with Barke’s own theories of art and class struggle, this article traces how Barke’s fiction represents toil on the one hand, and the yearning for a life beyond the tyranny of capital on the other, as defining the horizons of working-class life.
Recommended Citation
Introna, Arianna
(2025)
"Labour and (Class) Struggle in James Barke’s Compositionist Imaginaries: Dreaming with Rob Roy, Marx & Burns,"
Studies in Scottish Literature:
Vol. 50:
Iss.
1, 37–49.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ssl/vol50/iss1/5