Class denotes a system of social stratification structured by economic position, labour relations, education, and cultural capital. In nineteenth-century transatlantic societies, class became increasingly central due to industrialisation, capitalism, urbanisation, and new forms of wage labour. Literature of this period often interrogates class identities, class conflict, and the politics of labour.
Transatlantic writing portrays class as both an economic category and a moral, cultural, and political problem. British industrial novels examine structural inequality produced by capitalism, while American literature often explores tensions between democratic ideals and class realities. The rise of print culture also shaped class formation by producing readerships with different levels of access to education and leisure.
British industrial novels (e.g., Gaskell, Dickens) map working-class suffering and middle-class reformism.
American realist fiction (e.g., Howells, Crane) addresses class mobility, labour conflict, and urban poverty.
Slave narratives expose the intersection of race and class as structural components of Atlantic capitalism.