FROM THE NAMELESS CROWD
Robert Misik in conversation with Olivier David
FROM THE NAMELESS CROWD.
About class, anger & loneliness
„This is not about culturalising poverty, along the lines of: that's how they are, the poor. It's about highlighting the realities of life as causal chains.“
In recent years, a remarkable new genre of text has emerged: the description of social origins, including the alienation from the social class from which one comes, and at the same time the attachment to it - one need only think of the works of Didier Eribon or the autofictional writing of Annie Ernaux. Recently, there has even been a term that is slowly gaining currency for the condescension and experiences of rejection of the working classes, namely „classism“.
At the same time, stories about the lower class, literature about social background - these are usually tales of departure and advancement.
Olivier David's wonderful large-scale essay „Von der namenlosen Menge“ (Haymon-Verlag) centres on those who have remained at the bottom. Those with aching bodies, the night workers, the forgotten - and himself. How does it feel to pay for the prosperity of higher classes with your own body and health? What does it mean to remain at the bottom so that those at the top can retain their status, their power, their privileges? How can history be passed on if there is no collective memory of poor people?
Olivier David, born in Hamburg-Altona in 1988, is a writer and columnist. After leaving school, he worked in a supermarket for several years before training as an actor. Olivier David worked as a waiter, painter's assistant and warehouse worker, while also putting on plays for children.
At 30, he made a career change into journalism. In 2022, his first book „Keine Aufstiegsgeschichte - Warum Armut psychisch krank macht“ was published.
Moderation
Robert Misik, Author and journalist
Olivier David:
From the nameless crowd. about class, anger & loneliness
Haymon Verlag, May 2024, ISBN 978-3-7099-8231-0; €22.90; also available as an ebook!