The Melancholia of Class

In this radio show, Repeater author, Cynthia Cruz, will talk about social class in the US. In particular, in this podcast we will examine how the working class has been erased from social discourse, and what the repercussions of this social death are.

One such consequence of this erasure is that the working class has no language with which to think about class. After an introduction to the concept of the melancholia of class, in subsequent podcasts Cruz will present texts——theoretical, philosophical, and literary— that were formative for her in her own understanding of social class.

Such works offer language and concepts for us to begin to think about the place of the working class in the United States and, furthermore, about ways we can survive without assimilating. Readings will be listed ahead of time and may include the work of Mark Fisher, Jean Genet, John Wieners, Baudelaire, and Walter Benjamin.