Performative Representations of Working Class Labour as Language Games

Integrating scholarship from the disciplines of Performance Studies, Film & Media Studies, Working-Class Studies, Psychology, and Critical Theory, this chapter discusses representations of historical heaving industry working-class labour in Lolita Hernandez’s short story “Thanks to Abbie Wilson” and the author’s new working-class persona “She/Her” and the character’s non-theatrical labour performances. It draws comparisons between the narrative portrayal of labour written by a former autoworker in creative writing and staging the performance of work by a contemporary artist.