Abstract
This chapter explores key political and popular discursive features of the so-called “underclass” since Thatcherism. In doing so it offers a consideration of “underclass” positioning as morally dissolute, “shameless” and socially corrosive. It explores its location as marginal to the social but also symbolically central and its importance as a focus of collective fascination as well as of concern and even anxiety. We begin by unpacking the vocabulary of the “underclass” and its cognate terms in relation to a considered understanding of class hierarchies and the changing model of social and class relations under Thatcher, Major and Blair. We then go on to highlight various exemplary depictions of the “underclass” since the 1990s such as the British “underclass” film cycles, the films of Penny Woolcock and the television series, Shameless.
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© 2010 Heather Nunn and Anita Biressi
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Nunn, H., Biressi, A. (2010). Shameless?: Picturing the “underclass” after Thatcherism. In: Hadley, L., Ho, E. (eds) Thatcher & After. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283169_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283169_7
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