Gottlieb, Evan M. "Charles Kingsley, the Romantic
Legacy, and the Unmaking of the Working-Class Intellectual," Victorian
Literature and Culture (VLC) Vol 29, No. 1 (2001): 51-65.
Gottlieb provides an interpretation of Alton Locke that is dissimilar
to many other treatments of the industrial novel in general and Kinglsey's
novel in particular. He argues that Alton Locke and the representation
of the working-class poet are "safely apolitical" and in fact serve the
interests of the middle classes. The prevailing views of the narrator
and novel succeed, in fact, in espousing middle-class values more than
the concerns of the working classes. "The ideological work of Alton
Locke is to reassure its middle-class readers that it is not possible
for a working-class person to be an intellectual and remain loyal to his
class" (63). The novel, in short, reassures middle-class readers
who may be fearful of a workers' revolution.
Alton
Locke;
Social
and Political Views; Social
and Political Novel; Romantic
Poets; Political
thought, Influences on his. |
