DOCSLIB.ORG

From Chicken Soup to Denial and Beyond: Fifty Years of Arnold

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
From Chicken Soup to Denial and Beyond: Fifty Years of Arnold 1 From Chicken Soup to Denial and Beyond: Fifty Years of Arnold Wesker. Kelly McCloy, B.A. (Hons), MRes. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Ulster University. January 2021 I can confirm that the word count of the thesis is less than 100,000 words 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Abstract 5 Introduction 7 Chapter One: Food (i) Wesker’s depiction of food in the Anglo-Jewish domestic space. 33 (ii) Pigs and Capitalism in The Kitchen. 47 (iii) Wesker’s Roots and the Battle between Potatoes and Victoria Sponge Cake. 51 (iv) The Search for Strawberries and Dreams in I’m Talking About Jerusalem. 61 (v) The King’s Daughters: Wesker and an Anti-Tale made for Foodies. 68 (vi) “She promised herself many things…to stop drinking, to cut out chocolates…” Wesker and eating alone. 70 (vii) “Pools:” Mrs Hyams the Jewish Everywoman. 78 Conclusion to Chapter One. 82 Chapter Two: Women (i) “Centre of power:” Wesker’s early women. 85 (ii) “Preserving the mask of a busy, uncommunicative housewife:” Wesker’s invisible women in Chicken Soup with Barley and Love Letters on Blue Paper. 96 (iii) “Daughters of Eve:” Wesker’s Women from the 1980s-2000s. 125 (iv) “O, these men, these men!” Love against all odds in Lady Othello. 139 (v) “I have no distorted, rosy image of them.” Wesker as an authentic writer of women. 162 Conclusion to Chapter Two 180 Chapter Three: Denial (i) Supposedly “false accusations of child abuse:” Denial. 183 (ii) “There has to be a reason:” A Torn Family Portrait. 196 Conclusion to Chapter Three 218 Chapter Four: Shylock (i) “From “jubilant bibliophile” to “a bitter man:” Wesker’s Shylock. 222 (ii) “But-Portia Reads! The representation of women in Shylock. 244 (iii) Conclusion to Chapter Four. 254 3 What, what is there more? Conclusion. 259 Bibliography 279 4 Acknowledgements First, this thesis would never have been completed without the unrivalled support of my two supervisors, Dr Kevin De Ornellas and Dr Frank Ferguson. At certain stages in this process I have required encouragement but also to be reminded of the dedication which is necessary in order to produce a thesis such as this, these two gentlemen provided me with both in abundance. Along the way there will inevitably be some bumps along the road, however nothing worth doing ever comes easy. Throughout the duration of this process I have both grown as a person and developed skills which will be priceless to me in the future, I have also learnt that you can never draft your work too many times! I also want to thank my mum who has been both a financial support and emotional support throughout this journey, and the person who told me to simply give it a go because there may never be a better time and life is too short. At points when I felt like I couldn’t progress she was always there to provide the sharp push that I needed. 5 Abstract This thesis is a revaluation of Sir Arnold Wesker’s body of work. The aim of this thesis is to recognise that Wesker’s contribution to the literary canon, did not begin and end as one of the so-called kitchen sink playwrights of the 1950s and 1960s. Rather, that Wesker was a prolific writer for fifty years since first gaining public recognition with The Trilogy. One of the main objectives of this thesis is to demonstrate how Wesker was a fluid, progressive, writer of multiple genres who through the years continually reinvented what the term ‘kitchen sink’ drama means. The thesis begins with an analysis on what role food plays within Wesker’s oeuvre. Ultimately the diversity of food within his writing reflects the ever-evolving nature of a post- World War Two Britain in which the boundaries between culture, ideology and religion were starting to become more plural and less simple to categorise. Chapters two and three of the thesis study Wesker’s representation of women within his written work and also the 2000 play Denial. One of the objectives across these two chapters is to convey how at every juncture of his career Wesker used the domestic to contradict the monotony which is associated with the term ‘kitchen sink’ thereby making it relevant to every decade of the twentieth century. This is also reflected in the transformation that his female characters undergo, as in his early works women are associated with the domestic sphere and motherhood, whilst in his later works women have gained financial independence as well as freedom from the constraints of the household. Family strength is a dominant feature of The Trilogy as Wesker uses the unwavering strength of a family to contrast the futility of a political ideology. The broken family of Denial is an emblem of the fractured society now entering into the “great Millennium” as speculated by Ronnie Kahn. 6 The final chapter is an exploration of how Wesker rewrote William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice with the vision of creating a legacy. Wesker felt that the theatrical establishment lacked liberal, progressive thinking due to the praise bestowed upon brand Shakespeare. However, it is vital to remember that sixteenth century English society was not the society which we have today in 2020, in that racial tolerance and gender equality were not given the same importance within the social agenda. Therefore, I will also interrogate how Wesker is passively anachronistic towards Shakespeare. This thesis will also examine Wesker’s contribution to other genres of writing. Therefore, his short story writing including works from the collections Six Sundays in January and Love Letters on Blue Paper are examined in detail. In my analysis of Love Letters on Blue Paper I also refer to the cookery book written by Dusty Wesker, this is the first thesis in which this source is recognised therefore conveying the originality of this ground breaking insight into Wesker’s body of work. This thesis seeks to change the commonly accepted notion that Wesker was first and foremost a dramatist whose career held no merit post 1960s after the supposed heyday of the ‘kitchen sink’ genre. However, what this longitudinal study will prove is that even though Wesker’s style appeared to change from the loftiness of political ideology to the intricacies of human sexuality which it did do, he also never ceased to use the domestic or personal to evolve in perfect synchronisation with the times in which he was living. 7 Introduction In the House of Commons on Tuesday 12th April 2016, the leader of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn encouraged the Prime Minister David Cameron to pay his condolences to Sir Arnold Wesker, whom Corbyn said was “one of the great playwrights of this country.”1 However, this interaction between Cameron and the leader of the opposition came to prominence not because of Cameron’s harrowing tribute to Wesker but because of his being unable to recall who Wesker even was. This was despite the fact that Corbyn was referring to one of the most prolific writers within the British literary canon. The aim of this thesis is to analyse how Wesker has become a marginalised figure and to recognise that he was a proactive writer who was continually reinventing both himself and what is meant by the term ‘kitchen sink.’ To do this my thesis will be separated into four different chapters which will cover the following topics: Food, Women in Wesker’s Body of Work, his controversial play Denial (2000) and finally an analysis of his rewriting of The Merchant of Venice: Shylock (1976). These topics were selected because they provide us with a broad cross-section of Wesker as a writer of multiple genres and as an evolutionary figure. However, he was also a figure who sadly gained a reputation of being unruly to work with predominantly due to the fall out that ensued between himself and the Royal Shakespeare Company, due to their refusal to perform his 1972 play The Journalists. The conflict arose due to the actors’ refusal to perform this play for fear that it was perhaps too authentic a depiction of certain members of the Conservative party. In an interview with Matthew Sweet from The Telegraph Wesker himself said that “I had my time in the wilderness.”2 Therefore, his work being trapped in a critical “wilderness”3 is a key motivation for my decision to produce this thesis. I want to encourage 1 Michael Deacon, “David Cameron had to pay tribute to a famous playwright. Only trouble was… he’d never heard of him,” The Telegraph, 13th April (2016). 2 Matthew Sweet, “Arnold Wesker: Did Trotskyists kill off the best Seventies play?” The Telegraph, 16th May (2012). 3 Ibid. 8 the literary world to pay tribute to Wesker as a writer for the modern world in general, not a writer who should only be looked upon as being relevant for an early-mid twentieth century society. A writer who evolved in direct proportion to the society in which he lived. A writer who was driven to provide his audience or reader with an authentic depiction of the working- class members of society, who chose to go against the creation of caricatured depictions of them as his bourgeois predecessors such as Agatha Christie and Noel Coward chose to. A writer who did not insult the British people’s intelligence by writing drama which was light- hearted escapism, instead giving the British audience complex drama which was not only entertaining but also thought provoking.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing Sarah Glynn 2004
    East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing Sarah Glynn 2004 East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing: a comparative study of political mobilisation in the Jewish and Bengali communities The final version of this paper was published in the Journal of Historical Geography 31 pp 528­ 545 (2005) Abstract Twice in the recent history of the East End of London, the fight for decent housing has become part of a bigger political battle. These two very different struggles are representative of two important periods in radical politics – the class politics, tempered by popular­frontism that operated in the 1930s, and the new social movement politics of the seventies. In the rent strikes of the 1930s the ultimate goal was Communism. Although the local Party was disproportionately Jewish, Communist theory required an outward looking orientation that embraced the whole of the working class. In the squatting movement of the 1970s political organisers attempted to steer the Bengalis onto the path of Black Radicalism, championing separate organisation and turning the community inwards. An examination of the implementation and consequences of these different movements can help us to understand the possibilities and problems for the transformation of grass­roots activism into a broader political force, and the processes of political mobilisation of ethnic minority groups. Key Words Tower Hamlets, political mobilisation, oral history, Bengalis, Jews, housing In London’s East End, housing crises are endemic. The fight for adequate and decent housing is fundamental, but for most of those taking part its goals do not extend beyond the satisfaction of housing needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Jamie Stern-Weiner Tis Ebook Edition Published by Verso 2019
    anti-semitism and the labour party Anti-Semitism and the Labour Party Edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner Tis ebook edition published by Verso 2019 All rights reserved Te moral rights of the authors have been asserted Verso UK: 6 Meard St, London, W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay St, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Lef Books ISBN-13: 978-1-78960-671-3 ‘Corbyn Under Fire’ and ‘Te Never Ending Story’, © Daniel Finn 2018, frst appeared in Jacobin. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is an Anti-Racist, Not an Anti-Semite’ © Jospehn Finlay, 2019, frst appeared in Times of Israel. 'Smoke Without Fire: Te Myth of the 'Labour Antisemitism Crisis’ © Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison, 2019. ‘Te Chimera of British Anti-Semitism (and How Not to Fight It if it Were Real)’, frst appeared on Verso Blog © Norman Finkelstein, 2019; ’60 Times Jeremy Corbyn Stood with Jewish People’ © @ToryFibs; ‘Briefng for Canvassers: Challenging false allegations of antisemitism’ and ‘Te Riverside Scandal’ with permission from Jewish Voice for Labour; ‘A Disinformation Campaign’ © Media Reform Coalition, 2019; ‘Te Fake News Nazi: Corbyn, Williamson and the Anti-Semitism Scandal’ from Medians © David Edwards, 2019; ‘Is the Guardian Institutionally Antisemitic?’ and ‘Labour Party Conference or Nuremberg Rally? Assessing the Evidence’ from author’s blog, © Jamie Stern-Weiner 2019; ‘Hue and Cry over the UCU’ © Richard Kuper 2019; with permission of OpenDemocracy; ‘Why the Labour Party Should Not Adopt the IHRA Defnition or Any Other Defnition of Antisemitism’ from author’s
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright Statement This Copy of the Thesis Has Been Supplied On
    University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2014 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists Channing, Iain Christopher Edward http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2897 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. 1 2 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists by Iain Christopher Edward Channing A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in Partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Plymouth Law School March 2013 3 4 Abstract While domestic fascism within the United Kingdom has never critically challenged Parliamentary sovereignty, it has decisively disrupted public order since its roots were established in the inter-war political scene. The violence provoked by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was one of the stimulating factors behind the enactment of the Public Order Act 1936.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the September/October 2016 Unity
    campaignLives Thein Matter Britain Black UnityAnti-racist and anti-fascist magazine September/October 2016 Issue 17 £2 (where sold) uaf.org.uk SINCE THE RS BIR EA TH Y O 0 F 4 Inside this issue Refugees in Calais Battle of Cable Street Teachers travel to France How the British Union of to support people stuck in Fascists was halted in 1936 ‘Jungle’ camp page 12 page 10 2 September/October 2016 Unity Headline Standfirst BODY Standing up to injustice The NUT is proud of the work it does alongside Unite Against Fascism to campaign against racists and fascists. Thanks to the contributions of thousands of teachers to the union’s www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts political fund, the NUT is able to sponsor Unity magazine and to support campaigns against racist and fascist election candidates. nut.campaigns The fight for justice will continue until we have equality for all teachers and students. @NUTOnline Unity September/October 2016 3 Make schools safe places in uncertain times IN MY previous column for Unity In these uncertain times it is vital that schools Magazine I talked about the are safe places for all children and young unpleasant tenor of the debate as people, free from the racism and negative the EU referendum neared, with language or attitudes which lead to bullying. the scapegoating of refugees and Teachers should be congratulated for creating a culture and ethos that challenges harmful migrants a particular concern. behaviour and ensures all parents and pupils Regrettably this has continued and must are welcome and safe in school.
    [Show full text]
  • Sculpture for the Hull Volunteers 23 March 2019
    RNA IONALE TE S IN D E S L O A I L R I A B T E N R U T L 1936 1939 A D O V ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust l 1-2019 l £5 Sculpture for the Hull volunteers 23 March 2019 IBMT’s annual Len Crome Memorial Conference 11am to 4.30pm Football and theKellogg Spanish College, 60-62 Civil Banbury War Road Oxford OX2 6PN Sid Lowe Live music RNA IONALE Guardian Spanish football correspondent Maddy Carty, Robb Johnson and Na-mara TE S IN D E and author of ‘Fear and Loathing in La Liga: S L O A I L Barcelona vs Real Madrid’ and ‘Catholicism, Tickets R I A B T War and the Foundation of Francoism’ £15 in advance or £20 on the door E N R U T L l Book via Eventbrite: 1936 1939 A D O V Daniel Gray www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/len-crome- Author of ‘Black Boots and Football Pinks: memorial-conference-2019-tickets- 50 Lost Wonders of the Beautiful Game’ 48232321171 and ‘Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and l Or send cheques payable to ‘IBMT’ to: International Brigade the Spanish Civil War’ International Brigade Memorial Trust, Memorial Trust 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU www.international-brigades.org.uk Chaired by Professor Sir Paul Preston For travel and accommodation Films information go to the website of the Oxford ‘With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain’ International Brigade Memorial Committee: (1938) and ‘Capitán Republicano’ (2018) www.oxibmcomm.org.uk The IBMT is an organisation which contracts with Kellogg College, the University of Oxford, for the use of facilities, but which has no formal With support from the connection with the university or Kellogg College.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism and Multiculturalism Sarah Glynn 2009
    Marxism and Multiculturalism Sarah Glynn 2009 Marxism and Multiculturalism: Lessons from London’s East End The final version of this paper was published in Human Geography 3:1 2010 Abstract This article uses the lens of the East End of London, to examine 130 years of socialist and Marxist responses to racism and to ethnic and religious division. It looks both at how action was organised, and also at the debates of those trying to put Marxist ideas into practice, who all had to strike a balance between the pragmatic demands arising from working with ethnic minority groups, and the dangers of separatism. And it shows that, despite the difficulties, Marxism - far from neglecting divisions that cut across the basic economic categories of class, as is so often claimed – has a long history of analysing them and of arresting ethnic and racial conflict. Key words: Multiculturalism, Marxism, Jews, Bengalis, East End, cultural-national autonomy This is an account of 130 years of socialist and Marxist praxis in an area renowned both for its multicultural population and for its poverty. It uses historical examples as the basis for a critical discussion on the problems and possibilities that activists can face when campaigning for greater equality between and among different ethnic groups. The lessons this history gives in understanding and working within multi-ethnic societies, can provide us with an essentially different approach to that of - increasingly discredited - liberal multiculturalism. The East End The East End of London is a place associated with strong but, in some ways, contradictory images; a place of cockney kinship and immigrant ghettos, at once English and „alien‟.
    [Show full text]
  • MS 2018 04 28.Pdf
    Morning Star morningstaronline.co.uk 4 Saturday/Sunday news morningstaronline April 28-29 2018 @m_star_online n FRONT PAGE n ECONOMY n RIGHT TO PRIVACY WADSWORTH HUNG OUT Tory cuts to TO DRY BY LABOUR NCC blame for big Snoopers’ FROM P1: “It is a bitter irony that cratically elected party leader. fall in growth, Wadsworth’s unjust treatment “These rightwingers will would not have been possible if stop at nothing in their Charter not the relevant recommendations attempts to remove Corbyn.” says O’Grady of the Chakrabarti report had Dozens of Labour MPs had BRITAIN’S economy is suf- been implemented rather than marched in support of Jewish fering from an “avalanche” being obstructed by the party’s colleague Ms Smeeth as she of cuts, the TUC warned legal, High entrenched bureaucracy.” prepared to give evidence at yesterday as figures reveal Mr Wadsworth said in a Mr Wadsworth’s disciplinary Britain’s weakest quarterly statement that he was over- hearing this week. growth in five years. whelmed by the support he Mr Wadsworth accused the GDP figures published by Court finds received. “gang of white MPs” of bully- the Office for National Statis- He said: “I deplore anti- ing behaviour, saying it was “a tics (ONS) show the economy semitism, anti-black racism, crude attempt to influence the growing by just 0.1 per cent by Sam Tobin state having the kind of reten- Islamophobia and all forms of outcome of my hearing, and it in the last three months. tion powers provided by the Act, prejudice, bigotry and discrimi- seems to have had an effect.” It was the weakest quar- but he added that its “incom- nation that I have campaigned He was supported by Labour terly growth since the fourth THE TORY government suf- patibility” with European law against all my political life and MP Chris Williamson, who said quarter of 2012 and worse fered a humiliating High Court was a result of “failures to have will continue to do so.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF File
    v A MORNING STAR/UNITY! SPECIAL CABLE STREET FOREVER! The famous victory in 1936 is still felt today far beyond the East End, says LIZ PAYNE THE ROUTING OF Oswald Mosley’s For Peace and Freedom in East London!” black-shirted thugs and their police The Battle of Cable Street was inte- escort by 250,000 residents of Lon- gral to the international struggle to don’s East End in Autumn 1936 had sig- defeat the open terroristic dictatorship nificance way beyond the local streets of fascism, a system intent on stamp- or the year. ing out the struggle for socialism, and The Communist Party and YCL’s rally- the hopes and aspirations of working ing call (Daily Worker, 3 October 1936) people everywhere for a better life. read: “Against Fascism! For Freedom By 1936, fascism had already shown and Democracy! For the victory of the its true colours. Japan had invaded Man- Spanish People! For the raising of the churia in 1931. From 1933, a stream of blockade which deprives them of arms! 8Turn to page 2 ONLINE RALLY INSIDE: Jeremy Corbyn MP, 2.30pm Sunday 4 October Frances O’Grady (TUC), Patrick See p8 for details and how to register Roach (NASUWT) and more morningstaronline.co.uk Co-edited by Phil Katz and morningstaronline 2 Cable Street Forever James Rodie October 2020 @m_star_online Cable Street must inspire Cable Street action today S WE reflect on the his- by Frances O’Grady lisation against the National Front and toric victory at Cable BNP here in Britain. inspires Street 84 years ago, Today the threat from far-right we must be ready to working-class women and men — all ideologies has shifted into the main- mobilise against anti- joined forces with the local Jewish stream, and unions continue our fight us today semitism, racism and community to stop Mosley’s Black- in Britain and internationally.
    [Show full text]
  • The Life of Max Levitas * 49Th Congress Reports * News, Reviews & More EDITORIAL Editorial Dear Comrades Welcome to the Latest Issue of Challenge
    NOVEMBER 2018 £1.50 Inside: * The Life of Max Levitas * 49th Congress Reports * News, reviews & more EDITORIAL editorial Dear Comrades Welcome to the latest issue of Challenge. The last month has been a busy one for the League and the Party both internally and in terms of political developments. The Party held it’s 55th All-Britain Congress in London on 17-18 November 2018. After much frank democratic debate and discussion, Party comrades decided on a clear program for advancing the class struggle in Britain over the next two years and crucially measures to continue to grow and rebuild the Party. Many noted the high number of YCLers in attendance as voting or consultative delegates. It was widely commented that this was the ‘most youthful’ and energetic Party Congress since the nineties. The League’s own Congress was held the following weekend. This was certainly the most successful and largest Congress since our own Our foremost refoundation. This edition of Challenge contains a report of the Congress priority (p.15) as well as the opening and closing addresses (pp.16-20). The success of the League’s 49th Congress reflects our own growing remains strength and level of organisation. Meeting with comrades from our sweeping branches across the country was a particular highlight for me. Discussion on the floor of Congress was honest about the current limitations we face as away an organisaiton. But more importantly clear conclusions were drawn about how we address these failings and continue to build Britain’s revolutionary Theresa youth. May’s All this being said, we are not an inward looking organisation.
    [Show full text]