SWEAT critics

Question 1

Hornby - Racial and class solidarities -> resentment

Answer 1

Sweat exposes how easily racial and class solidarities are fractured by economic downturns, creating fertile ground for resentment and scapegoating

Question 2

Feingold - alienation

Answer 2

Fundamentally about alienation - not just of labour.

Question 3

Brantley - American Dream

Answer 3

The tragedy of Sweat lies in its disillusionment with the American Dream, where hard work no longer guarantees security, and hope becomes a liability

Question 4

Mahon - Sides

Answer 4

Encourages empathy for all sides in the conflict, even those whose actions we might find reprehensible

Question 5

Billington - Danger of nostalgia

Answer 5

‘embodies the dangerous nostalgia of blue collar America that refuses to change.’ (Tracey)

Question 6

Als - The bar

Answer 6

‘both a sanctuary and a trap’

Question 7

Mohler - chronology

Answer 7

Nottage splices the more innocent moments of 2000 with scenes of destitution set in 2008, which are made all the more tragic because of their chronological proximity to our own moment

Question 8

Burell - Hiding behind white identity

Answer 8

‘at the moments when Tracey and Jason feel threatened, or jealous, or in some way psychologically diminished, they retreat to the shelter of their white identity’

Question 9

Burell - white nostalgia about jobs

Answer 9

according to those feeling white nostalgia, Black and Latina workers are always usurpers of labour that has been historically coded as white.

Question 10

Kirton - race and gender

Answer 10

‘Through their discussions and experiences, Nottage contests certain cultural narratives about the US rust belt, connected to race and gender’