Discussion: The poetics & politics of everyday life

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NOTE: Course readers will not be available at Haven Books until Wednesday Sept 26th. Check back here next week for confirmation and pricing. For this week’s discussion, you are only responsible for the readings from The Everyday Life Reader.

Questions for September 21

Leon Trotsky, “Habit and Custom” (ELR pp. 85-90)

• Trotsky believed that a successful revolution at the level of the everyday would have to take into account the existing habits and customs of the proletariat, as “it is only the seizure of power by the working class which creates the premises for a complete transformation of morals.” Which elements of family life today do you think involve unfair power relations? What transformation of morals, habits and customs do you think needs to occur in order to change those relations?

Karal Ann Marling, “Nixon in Moscow: the kitchen debate” (ELR pp. 101-107)

• One of the core issues in Marling’s story is the relationship between national success and quality of life at the level of the everyday. Which customs, habits and attitudes do you think the Americans put on display at the 1959 Moscow Exhibition, and which were absent? Do you think the exhibition focussed on ‘ordinary culture’? Whose interests did it serve?

Georges Perec, “Approaches to what?” (ELR pp. 176-178)

• Perec’s approach to understanding everyday life is revolutionary in its insistence that we look beyond the extraordinary and find ways to speak of “common things.” Do you agree with him that the ‘official’ news is not well-suited to this way of describing the world? What would a newspaper inspired by Perec’s questions and concerns look like? Do you think it would still be considered ‘news’?

Carolyn Steedman, “Landscape for a good woman” (ELR pp. 262-270)

• The role of personal anecdote is central to understanding Steedman’s take on the politics of everyday life, as she tells a story from her own life in order to explore how class differences play out in the daily lives of women. Can you think of a story about your mother, or a prominent woman in your life, that helps you understand her experiences of - or attitudes towards - socio-economic status? Is this story true?

See you Friday!

- Anne

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