An Annotated Bibliography
The main purpose of this bibliography is to offer a fairly comprehensive list of novels and short stories written in English or available in translation that teachers can use to help students at the secondary and college level think critically about the world of work. The works included in this bibliography articulate the lives of men and women who run the machines, plow the fields, sign the contracts, sew the clothes, and work the assembly lines. It is hoped that these stories will be enjoyable, informative, thought provoking, and maybe even a little unsettling. Some stories focus on the laudable side of work, while others criticize or satirize the more unpleasant or burdensome aspects–“I hate my job,” “I’m the only human being in this place,” and so on. Some works represent efforts to defy what they see as a conspiracy on the part of business and government to dehumanize or to 1 2 6 characterize businesspeople as Babbitts or unlettered Philistines (Holt, 1989). Others attempt to right a perceived prejudice against labor and labor leaders.
The bibliographic entries contain the original publication date as well as a citation for editions published that were available mainly through the use of the University of California library system. These editions do not represent the only publication source for many of these works.
The annotations are of two kind. First, up to three major work-related subjects are listed as they apply to the contents of each work. Second, this is followed by a short description, usually about the plot, that further explains each story’s connection to the world of work. The subjects listed represent some of the major work-related topics contained in these literary pieces and are not exclusive, for many of these works cover multiple aspects of the work experience. The following is a list of the subjects used in this bibliography:
Agriculture
Business
Career (career choices, paths, and obstacles)
Customer Relations (how service is rendered to customers and clients)
Discrimination (race, gender, and so on)
Entrepreneurship (starting work on one’s own)
Ethics (affect of work on ethical fabric of society)
International Business
Management
Marketing
Performance (evaluation of the quality of a person’s work)
Technology (how technology affects the workplace)
Unions
Value of Work (the reasons why one works, its human worth)
Women and Work
Working Conditions (mainly the physical environment)
Work Relations (how one gets along with coworkers and supervisors)
Work Skills (what is needed or lacking to be an effective worker)
No bibliographic list of this type, of course, can ever be considered complete, for the more one looks the more one discovers the rich diversity of literature. As for the selection of these works, the overriding criterion is whether work plays a significant part in the development of the plot or the characters, even though the work activities may also be tightly interwoven with other psychological, social, and cultural elements of life.
Another major criterion of this bibliography is to provide a large range of work experiences particularly in areas that interested vocational educators–industry, business, agriculture, and home and health care. Thus, work as experienced by the characters in these stories covers a wide range from that of homemakers to space-age technologists, from blue-collar workers to white-collars ones, from street messengers and peasants to corporate executives. For the most part, work in these stories is paid employment, but the bibliography also contains stories of homemakers and other workers who receive no direct compensation.
Again, for the sake of variety, some care has been taken to include works by women writers, writers of ethnic minorities, and writers from other continents (available in English) that pertain to work experiences. In regard to women writers, the existence of several anthologies devoted to their work has made the task of identification easier than ever before. As can be seen from the literature, the major roles women have performed in fiction are (1) farm work (an overwhelming number), (2) jobs that are extensions of their nurturing roles like nursing and teaching, (3) factory work especially in the early textile mills (these offered the first major industrial jobs for women), and (4) housework (though women are rarely protagonists if they are solely homemakers) (Hornbostel, 1986).
The prominence of agrarian literature which constitutes the majority of the world corpus of literary pieces in the world about work in the development of American culture cannot be overestimated. It has spawned such important concepts as an ideal society of independent property owners, and the cultivation of the soil as instilling honor, self-reliance, courage, moral integrity, sense of family, and hospitality (Inge, 1969). However, on account of limitations of space, only a relatively small selection of representative works is included.
Likewise, this bibliographic list contains few works by “working-class” writers the Chartist novelists of the 1840s, the socialist novelists of the 1880s through the 1920s, the “proletarian” writers of the 1930s, the working-class “angry young men” of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and current worker-writers. Again, time constraints and the sheer number of such works preclude a coherent listing at this time. For more information about these it is best to consult such studies as Klaus (1985) and N. Coles (1986).
Novels in this list are primarily about work and the major characters’ reactions to it. There are, however, a few examples where the main story does not directly concern work, but work does act prominently in a chapter or section of a work. The paint factory chapters of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man and the introductory chapter, “The Custom House,” of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are good examples. The reason for including such works is to point out that many pieces of literature, even those of the canon, hold important observations about work that could be included in designing the curriculum.
In addition, care has also been taken to include works that covet a range of reading levels. Several of these fictional works are labeled “easy reading.” These represent, in general, contributions from the realm of adolescent novels.
Classroom Use
There are few examples of curriculum material designed to teach the literature of work. Hence, teachers may have to develop their own plans using books and bibliographies and other materials at hand. One possibility is to structure a course to revolve around the theme of work and its many facets–personal, social, and economic. For example, when studying a major work such as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, students could explore the whole work–how the parts (like recruiting the crew and the details of life aboard ship) fit into the major theme (obsession with revenge for a perceived evil) and the book as a whole. After all, Melville conceived of his work as a whole, not merely as the simple story of a man versus a whale.
In dealing with these and other works, instructors should require students to look at the world of work critically to examine and pose questions about the nature and politics of work, its necessity, its rewards, and its pitfalls. For instance, in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, students may at first be sympathetic to the cause of the animals against a farmer who exploits them so he can gain the maximum profit. However, students eventually learn further on in the work that applications of the socialist -like society the animals devise are difficult (O’Neill, 1985).
Attention should be given to open discussion about the merits and demerits of the author’s interpretation of the work reality, about that of the author’s contemporaries, and about what historical insight has contributed. One should be critical of a Babbitt but also be able to see what positive lessons can be drawn from the piece of fiction (e.g., the importance of integrity in business dealings) for work and life.
Moreover, writing about work and the lives of real people usually requires a realistic style. These stories and other types of work literature often contain language of their experience, which may at times be quite raw and explicit (Hoffman, 1990, p. 55). Discussion of these pieces of fiction should then focus on the living and working conditions of the characters and traits that enable them to endure adversity and relish personal triumphs.
One should be fairly attentive in selecting works that balance a number of factors about both the author and characters: gender, ethnic/cultural background, socioeconomic status, political/religious perspective, geographic location, and historical period. The following are some examples of combinations of works which teachers could consider:
For a high school unit focusing on literature and technology, an instructor could select from among these works:
Asimov, I, Robot
Brontë, Shirley, A Tale
Brown, “Virus”
Morris, Motor City
Norris, Octopus; a tale of California
Vonnegut, Player Piano
For a high school short story unit focusing on international working conditions, an instructor could select from among these works:
Baranskaia, A Week Like Any Other
Calvino, Marcovaldo: Or Seasons in the Snow
Chavez, “Last of the Menu Girls”
Conroy, The Weed King and Other Stories
Hayama, “Letter Found in a Cement Barrel”
Matshoba, “A Glimpse of Slavery”
Narayan, Malgudi Days
O’Rourke, “The Maggot Principle”
Yokomitsu, “The Machine”
Zimpel, “Foundry Foreman”
For a one-semester community college course focusing on literature and unions, an instructor could select from among these works:
Bimba, Molly MaGuires
Conroy, The Disinherited
Fast, Power
Kobayashi, Cannery Boat
Sinclair, The Jungle
Stead, “The Azhdanov Tailors”
Steinbeck, “The Raid”
Ward, Red Baker
For a one-semester community college course focusing on literature and migrant workers, an instructor could select from among these works:
Anaya, Heart of Aztlan
Barrio, The Plum Plum Pickers
Bell, Out of This Furnace
Olsen, Yonnondio: From the Thirties
Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
For a one-semester four-year college course in women’s literature focusing on work novels, an instructor could select from among these works:
Bullard, Comrade Yetta
Canfield, The Home-Maker
Cather, My Antonia
Glasgow, Barren Ground
Jewett, A Country Doctor
Kelley, Weeds
Peattie, The Precipice
Phelps, The Silent Partner
Savage, Factory Girl
Finally, the annotated bibliography is followed by a teaching resource section that includes books and articles that can provide assistance for the teaching of literature that is related to work. The first section covers studies of work literature and how this type and other types of nontraditional literature can be incorporated in the English classroom and curriculum. The second section contains selected titles on the subject of work. These latter works provide a background for the discussion of an author’s insights on the work setting.
Continue to full Bibliography here →
© 1992, Kenneth Koziol. All rights reserved.