Those who lament the recent disappearance of "class" from cultural criticism invariably mean the working class.  Very little attention has been paid to the lower-middle class, recently described by John Hartley as "the social class with the lowest reputation in the entire history of class theory."  Yet the lives of ever more individuals in the industrialized West are defined by occupations, lifestyles, and attitudes traditionally associated with the lower-middle class.

Rita Felski considers the reasons why the lower-middle class has been, and is likely to remain a singularly "uncool" identity among the intelligentsia.  She then examines some relevant representations of this class in literature and in the work of historians and sociologists of culture.  While lower-middle-classness poses a problem for contemporary forms of identity policies, it nevertheless raises important issues that cultural studies has yet to address systematically.

Cosponsored by: Department of Anthropology, Department of English, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Department of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Department of Theatre, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Program in Comparative Literature, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Women's Studies Program