Christine Grandy
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HEROES AND HAPPY ENDINGS: CLASS, GENDER, AND NATION IN POPULAR FICTION AND FILM IN INTERWAR ENGLAND CHRISTINE GRANDY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN HISTORY YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO April 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39011-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-39011-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada iv Abstract This dissertation addresses popular fiction and film of 1920s and 1930s Britain and examines the ideology promoted within these narratives. I look at 'bestsellers' as a relatively new term in that period, as well as the top films with middle- and working- class British audiences in order to understand the relationship of popular culture to gender, the economy, and nation. It situates reoccurring characters, such as the male hero, the villain, and female love-interests, against concerns after World War I about soldiers, unemployed men, profiteers, and working and voting women. I argue that the film and fiction most popular with British audiences in this period was overwhelmingly concerned with a defensive effort to rehabilitate and maintain the role of men as both heroic soldiers and breadwinners following a war which had destabilized these masculine identities. Images of villains and love-interests in these narratives emphasised a return of the soldier and breadwinner to his primary role within the economy and nation through shifts in their own positions in these areas. As a result, the ideology promoted in popular film and fiction worked to soothe and moderate concerns in the 1920s and 1930s about the changing economic, social, and gender landscape. I further argue that this ideology was endorsed through the censorship of these characters by government agencies such as the British Board of Film Censors and the Home Office. Acknowledgements It is much easier to write acknowledgments than it is to write the dissertation itself, but that makes them no less meaningful. I have many wonderful people in my life who have all contributed to this dissertation in their own ways, but I must single out some of them at this point. My committee members have made significant contributions to this project. Kate McPherson has provided encouragement at key moments and Marc Stein has given me what many graduate students are not lucky enough to receive: constant encouragement and involvement, as well as the gift of line-by-line editing. I am very grateful for that, and the latter has made it a much more readable dissertation. Stephen Brooke has mentored me for over ten years now, from a lowly undergraduate at Dalhousie University, and has been a tremendous influence in ways that are difficult to acknowledge, nor even to recognize any more. He is an inspiring lecturer in the classroom and also a kind and supportive aid outside of it. I am grateful to consider him not just a teacher, but a friend, and a colleague. My thanks also to Professor James Martens from Red Deer College who first pushed me into the history program. I must also acknowledge the support of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship which made my studies financially feasible at a point when I was unsure about continuing. I simply would not have finished this dissertation without the deadlines offered by numerous reading groups who took the time and patience to read often-awful early versions of chapters. The Masculinities Reading group, York University's Women's History Reading Group, The Southern Ontario Modern British seminar, and most recently, the British History Writing Group have all commented on various chapters which has been invaluable. I have also been lucky enough to benefit this year from the feedback of excellent students in my 4th year seminar as they have read works that have been foundational to my thesis. Their thoughts have been a great help as I wrote the introduction. Individuals in my holy circle of proofreading have also provided sometimes maddening but always thought-provoking comments on my dissertation. Tod Duncan read the bulk of my dissertation and I am grateful for his insight and the discussions that arose from it, especially in regards to the relationship between history and theory. Ian Hesketh likewise read the majority of my chapters and his comments and encouragement are always valuable. Ian Mosby read my introduction which lead to some lively discussion and I thank him for that. The size of York's history department has also brought me into contact with a number of graduate students working inside and outside of my field whose friendship has meant much to me as we have faced the often baffling, always hilarious world of graduate studies. Kristine Alexander, Dr. Sean Kheraj, Mark Abraham, Susana Miranda, Laura Godsoe, Dr. Sarah Glasford, and Tarah Brookfield have commiserated and laughed with me over the years. From the world of graduate school to the much more tangible world of every day life, Bethany Lander, Joel Regehr, Vania Sukola, Suzanne Carlsen, Monique McLeod, Laural Raine and Ian Mosby have made Toronto a wonderful place to live. I have been lucky to have their support through some very good times and some not-so-good times too. They have put up with me hissing 'this is my thesis' at them in darkened theatres and have also brought perverse enjoyment to the acts of moving houses and theme parties among other things. We have been team players for a long time and I thank you guys for that. Of course, missing from all of the above lists is Ben Lander. Ben has been a classmate, a proof-reader and reading-group member, a team member, an honorary brother, and most of all a very dear friend to me since the very first day of our Master's. Michelle Firestone, Tannis Gibson, and Brooke Spearn have also, as my dearest and oldest friends, been great supporters through this. They have taken an active interest in the mystifying vocabulary and bureaucracy of graduate school and having their perspectives and encouragement from outside of the world of academia has been wonderfully grounding when I needed it. Finally they say that everyone's dissertation is really about themselves, a comment which has remained with me. It is indeed the case that this dissertation is somewhat narcissistically about me, but more specifically it is about and for my parents, Ron Grandy and Janet McLaughlin. They are written on every page and their support and their pride in me, even when they have not entirely understood what I have been doing for so many years, has been something I hope to not take for granted. I dedicate this dissertation to them in small acknowledgement of all they have contributed to me and therefore to it. viii Table of Contents iv Abstract v Acknowledgements viii Table of Contents ix List of Appendices x List of Images 1 Introduction "The same themes repeated over and over again": Popular Culture and Ideology between the Wars 59 Chapter 1 A Man Imagined: Heroes, Work, and Nation 118 Chapter 2 The Shape of Villainy 180 Chapter 3 Paying for Love: Love-Interests and Villainesses 249 Chapter 4 Building Character: Censorship, the Home Office, and the British Board of Film Censors 306 Conclusion Thoughts on Heroes, Villains, and Love-Interests Beyond 1939 318 Bibliography List of Appendices 245 Appendix A: Ratio of Employment in 1931 304 Appendix B: T.P. O'Connor's 43 x List of Images 117 Image 1: Cavalcade (1933) 179 Image 2: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) 246 Image 3, 4: A Star is Born (1937) 247 Image 5, 6: Queen Christina (1933) 248 Image 7: Bulldog Drummond (1929) 1 Introduction "The same themes repeated over and over again": Popular Culture and Ideology between the Wars "Everybody wants to forget it," said Bertram, with a touch of passion in his voice. "The Profiteers, the Old Men who ordered the massacre, the politicians who spoilt the Peace, the painted flappers.