Newsroom

CORVALLIS - A University of Virginia professor will compare 19th- and 20th-century literature and cultural theory to analyze the lower middle class of society during a lecture on April 2 at Oregon State University.

Rita Felski, a professor of English, will speak on "Nothing to Declare: Identity, Class and Shame." Her lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 105. It is free and open to the public.

The lecture is part of OSU's Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities lecture series, "The Arts and Sciences: Interactions and Influences." In her lecture, Felski will consider some of the reasons why the lower middle class "has been, and is likely to remain, a singularly 'uncool' identity among the intelligentsia."

Felski says concern over the lack of class identity in cultural criticism refers to the working class, while the lower middle class is virtually ignored. She will discuss representations of class in literature and in the work of historians and sociologists of culture.

Felski has a bachelor's degree in modern languages from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Monash University in Australia.