The “affective turn” in the humanities has drawn attention to the relationship between affect and race, gender, and sexuality, however, class remains persistently underexplored. Through an analysis of the television show Roseanne (1988-1997), I examine working-class subject formation and the affective dimensions of the working-class family. Roseanne’s portrayal of a white, working–class family struggling to make ends meet garnered considerable attention during its run for its depiction of the gendered dynamics of working-class labor, particularly its central focus on a working-class woman. What this much-deserved attention to Roseanne, both her on-screen and off-screen persona, elides, however, is the show’s focus on the affective dimensions of the working-class family and larger community. Drawing on work in queer studies and embodiment studies, I argue that Roseanne provides a critical lens through which to explore the affective economies of working-class identities, particularly in relation to sexuality, gender, race, and region. I argue that the show sutures working-class anger and shame to the body, represented primarily through bodily and sexual excess and a focus on the excesses of the familial, community, and regional body. Roseanne provides a valuable site of analysis for understanding affiliation in relation to circuits of desire, affect, and embodiment.
About the presenterAnna Ward
Anna E. Ward is a lecturer in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College in Northampton, MA. Her work has appeared in Camera Obscura, The Scholar & Feminist, Social Psychology Quarterly, and American Quarterly.