Under-Mining the Meaning: Women’s Dialect Poetry and the 1984–5 UK Miners’ Strike

From novels to plays, musicals to films, the cultural history of the 1984–5 UK miners’ strike is one of contestation, claim, and counter-claim. In contrast to this extensive range of popular representations of male experiences of the conflict, writings by the female strike supporters whose actions also authored the conflict have received comparatively little academic attention. Instead, the post-strike period has been marred by the neglect and negation of female strike supporters’ literature. This chapter argues that writings authored by female strike supporters during the dispute deserve to be added to the many existing representations of the conflict. Offering new perspectives on history as well as a significant outlet for the frustrations and pressures endured during 1984–5 and after, the act of writing and the use of dialect provided women from mining communities with a voice in a cultural climate that demanded their silence. Examining the writings produced by these women during 1984–5, this chapter considers the new understandings of, and perspectives on, the 1984–5 UK miners’ strike that their manuscript works offer twenty-first century readers.