Little Man, What Now? The White-Collar Proletariat | Hans Fallada скачать в хорошем качестве

Little Man, What Now? The White-Collar Proletariat | Hans Fallada

Siegfried Kracauer put it succinctly when he stated that modern slavery was no longer to be found in factories, but rather in offices where people might wear fine suits instead of overalls, yet ultimately found themselves in the same dependency as workers. This new professional group of salaried employees regarded itself as socially superior, deliberately sought to distance itself from the “classical” proletariat, and pursued a bourgeois way of life. It is precisely here that Hans Fallada picks up with Kleiner Mann, was nun?. Inspired by Kracauer’s observations, he portrays the fate of the employee Johannes Pinneberg and his wife Emma, called Lämmchen. While Pinneberg desperately struggles as a salesman for sales quotas and recognition, Lämmchen keeps their small family together with resourcefulness and warmth. Yet the more Pinneberg indulges in the deceptive feeling that he stands socially above the workers, the more harshly he and his wife collide with reality, a reality that proves to be just as relentless as the assembly line in the factory. Mentioned Literature: Fallada, H. (2009) Little Man, What Now? Translated by S. Bennett. London: Penguin Classics. Kracauer, S. (1998) The Salaried Masses: Duty and Distraction in Weimar Germany. Translated by Q. Hoare. London: Verso. Time Stamps: 00:00 Kracauer: The Salaried Masses 02:31 Storyline 05:00 The Bourgeois Illusion 10:18 Economic Desperation 14:06 Political Disillusionment 17:11 Corporate Control over Private Life 23:55 The Erosion of Workplace Solidarity 31:31 The Unavoidable Decent into Poverty