Post-War British Literature: Exploring Social Change and the Novel
Kingsley Amis (1922-1995): The University as Microcosm
The Post-War Shift
The Second World War disrupted the modernist tradition of writers like D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. A new era demanded a different literary approach. Realism and the social novel, reminiscent of Dickens and Fielding, resurfaced. This resurgence aimed to document and interpret the societal transformations brought about by the welfare state. The novel became a lens through which to examine the experiences of the working-class and lower-middle-class youth, revealing the anxieties of the time.
The English Novel and Social Representation
Representing English society became a central theme in the English novel. Kingsley Amis emerged as a prominent figure during this period. His novel Lucky Jim is a “campus novel” (also known as an academic novel), set primarily on a university campus. It reflects the mood of a group of writers from the mid to late 1950s known as the “Angry Young Men.”
Lucky Jim: A Study in Discontent
Hero: Jim Dixon
Jim Dixon, the archetypal protagonist, embodies several new attitudes of the 1950s, including disrespect, a sullen anger towards the educated, and vulgarity. As a teacher in a provincial university, he represents the post-war upward social mobility of the traditionally overlooked working and lower-middle classes. The novel explores how the trivial interests of the university’s intellectual members and the pressures of his job “drive him to pull horrible faces or engage in dissatisfied, murmuring anger.”
Jim’s Awkwardness and Ironic Fate
Jim’s bitterness and anger manifest as an endearing awkwardness, leading to drunken mishaps and a disastrous lecture. Ironically, he is ultimately rescued by a member of the wealthy class he disdains and departs with an ideal woman for a lucrative job in London.
Comedy or Social Critique?
The novel’s happy ending and the harmless nature of Jim’s actions throughout suggest that Lucky Jim might be viewed retrospectively as more of a comedy than a scathing social critique from an angry young man. Jim’s comical adventures and the absurd characters surrounding him seem too weak to serve as effective vehicles for satire or genuine anger. The “luck” he experiences at the end reflects more of a reconciliation with society than a desire for reform.
Cultural Decline and Egalitarianism in Education
Lucky Jim examines the perceived cultural decline associated with increased access to education for lower-middle-class and working-class students. The expansion of university opportunities and the growing aspirations of these classes led to a blurring of traditional class distinctions. For those experiencing this transition, it meant a clash of different worlds and a persistent reassertion of social differences. Consequently, many prominent campus novels, including Lucky Jim, highlight the challenges of survival and adaptation faced by various types of displaced individuals, like Jim, who are their protagonists.
The Theme of Class Differences
The theme of class differences permeates the text. Dixon, with his keen eye for social, visual, and linguistic cues, frequently observes and reproduces these divisions. Although these distinctions are intended to separate members of the lower, middle, and upper classes, in Lucky Jim they primarily serve to distinguish between characters who strive for social status and those who genuinely possess it.
The Welches and Authentic Class
The Welches, with their upwardly mobile aspirations, meticulously adhere to the markers of class, such as serving coffee and cakes for supper. Meanwhile, characters less preoccupied with social class—typically those from the lowest and highest classes—exhibit vulgarity and flaws but are ultimately more admirable and refined than their pretentious counterparts.
Muriel Spark (1918-2006): Exploring Evil and Metafiction
The Supernatural and the Novelist as Creator
The supernatural plays a significant role in many of Spark’s works, reflecting her awareness of the novelist as a creator, a kind of god-like figure. She possesses an acute sense of the existence of evil.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Character, Environment, and Ideology
Inspired by Spark’s own experiences at a girls’ school in Edinburgh, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie offers a brilliant portrayal of character, environment, and ideology. The enclosed atmosphere of the school is subtly interwoven with the political climate of the outside world, with Miss Brodie’s “prime” coinciding with the rise of fascism.
Elitism, Leadership, and Betrayal
The novel explores the cult of elitism and leadership, the creed of the chosen and the rejected, and the conflicts arising from a strong desire for power, personal loyalty, and betrayal.
The Driver’s Seat: A Chronicle of a Death Foretold
In The Driver’s Seat, the nature of evil is central. However, Spark seems to acknowledge that any attempt at psychological investigation would be futile. She recognizes that silence and gaps are often more revealing than realistic description and linear development.
Metafiction and the Fictionality of the Novel
Spark’s novels incorporate social details but can be aptly described as metafictional, as they consistently draw attention to the novel’s fictional status, the author’s awareness of its nature, and the dangerous illusion of shaping reality into neat patterns. In the late 1950s, English novelists were largely constrained by the moral tradition, clinging to realism and “truthful” representation while resisting experimentation. Spark openly addressed the question of the novel’s fictionality, suggesting that although she knows her novels are not true, a kind of truth emerges from them.
Pattern, Plotting, and Prolepsis
Fundamental formal elements of fiction, such as pattern and plotting, are prominent in all of Spark’s novels. Even her characters are often cunning plotters. At the heart of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the teacher’s long-term manipulation of her students for her own purposes. The powerful influence she exerts over her chosen girls, known as “the Brodie set,” is likened to the fascist ideological brainwashing methods of Mussolini, the contemporary dictator she admires.
The Driver’s Seat: Manipulation and a Parody of Romance
In The Driver’s Seat, arguably her most representative novel, pattern and plot are paramount. The novel is a dark tale of manipulation and a deadly parody of the romance plot. The title, “The Driver’s Seat,” signifies being in control of a situation or relationship. The protagonist, Lise, a lonely young woman, meticulously plans her own death and controls every detail of a morbidly rehearsed ritual.
Inverted Detective Story and Narrative Strategies
According to Norman Page, The Driver’s Seat parodies the optimistic nature of conventional narratives by depicting the protagonist’s quest for a lover. She rejects various candidates, deeming them unsuitable, and ultimately selects a reluctant partner who becomes both her victim and her murderer. The novel can also be seen as an inverted detective story: the victim chooses, pursues, and traps the killer, leaving a trail for the police to follow.
While the novel adopts the form of traditional fiction, this situation is subverted by the facts: the relationship between murderer and victim and the crime occurring at the end rather than the beginning, as in most detective fiction.
One of Spark’s favored narrative strategies is the use of flashforwards or prolepsis (a Greek term for anticipation). This occurs when the primary sequence of events is interrupted by a scene representing a future event. Both The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Driver’s Seat employ this technique, adding complexity to the narrative pattern. Readers are privy to information beforehand, gaining a vantage point from which to observe the characters’ reactions and anticipate their inevitable fates.