Lintheads and barons: filling the silences of the Loray Mill Strike

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Sally Wyatt Griffin (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater

Abstract: This dissertation intends by contextual analysis to examine a Southern textile community and through its literature--formal and informal, and written before, during, and after the 1929 Lora Mill strike--to show how the stories of this community construct a "figured world" in which identities were formed and lives were made possible through the genres and language practices of different social groups in Gaston County. It argues that each discourse--that of the mill barons, the mill workers, and the communist labor organizers--developed primarily along lines of money and social class, and shows how each discourse defines itself and is subsequently defined, silenced, and/or given voice by the others. It studies the genres of each written discourse (histories, newspapers, dramatic presentations, songs, and other studies) from a power standpoint that each genre maintains this particular social context.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
Southern, Textile mills, 1929 Lora Mill, Strike, Discourses, Social class
Subjects
Social classes in literature.
Strikes and lockouts $x Textile industry $z North Carolina $x In literature.
Textile workers $x Labor unions $z North Carolina $x In literature.

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