Durham E-Theses Rethinking Marxist Aesthetics: Race, Class and Alienation in Post-War British Literature BAGLAMA, SERCAN,HAMZA How to cite: BAGLAMA, SERCAN,HAMZA (2017) Rethinking Marxist Aesthetics: Race, Class and Alienation in Post-War British Literature , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12322/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 1 Rethinking Marxist Aesthetics: Race, Class and Alienation in Post-War British Literature Sercan Hamza Bağlama Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies Durham University June 2017 2 Table of Contents Statement of Copyright……………………………………………………………….3 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Acknowledgments………………………………………………….……………….... 6 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….…. 8 Chapter I: Marxism and Class………………………………………………….…. 15 Chapter II: Alienation…………………………………………………...…….…… 56 Chapter III: Alan Sillitoe…………………………………………………….….…. 87 Chapter IV: Sam Selvon…………………………………………………………… 129 Chapter V: Doris Lessing…………………………………………………………... 179 Chapter VI: James Kelman………………………………………………………… 212 Conclusion……………………………………………………. …………………….. 238 Bibliography…………………………………………………………...……………. 245 3 Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 4 Abstract A literary text subjectively fictionalizes and narrates one dimension of the total structure of an epoch; it reveals the reciprocal interplay between personal experiences and historical formations through the aesthetic incarnation of a unique personal perspective on the real that is also derived from a social position and origin in relation to a social structure. In order to analyse economic, cultural and political histories in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century mediated through the represented experiences of characters in fictions of the post-war period, this dissertation focusses on the literary works of four different post-war authors, Alan Sillitoe, Sam Selvon, Doris Lessing and James Kelman. Each of these writers depicts a wide range of social, cultural and political circumstances and interactions in their special historical modes in order to expose specific dimensions out of the totality of real life through the depiction of the multifaceted and subjective experiences of fictional characters. Alan Sillitoe’s literary works literalize the class antagonism constructed upon the dichotomy of ‘them’ and ‘us’ through the inner and outer conflicts of the ‘white’ working-class characters and portray the socio-historical reality of class consciousness and its emergence as part of the particular and complex historical conditions pertaining in the UK; Sam Selvon’s novels provide a different interpretation of migrant-ness and displacement and fictionalize the poverty and misery of his ‘black’ working-class characters in relation to the mass migration flows facilitated by the Nationality Act of 1948; James Kelman portrays and mediates the disintegrating and alienating impacts of post-industrial capitalism upon the Scottish working-class characters, reveals the victimization process of the Scottish working-class characters by governmental authorities and bureaucracy, and adds a third dimension to the discussion centred around race, nationality and class; Doris Lessing’s fiction helps articulate the discussions in the UK regarding the rejection of the dominant orthodoxy in the Labour Party and of the legacy of Stalinism and the employment of a range of reforms on issues like gender, sexuality and civil rights during the formation of the New Left. This dissertation mainly argues that class still matters and that, if it is to be adequately demonstrated, there is, therefore, a strong argument for a return to the writings of Karl Marx, to the Marxist concept of alienation, and to Marxist economics rather than simply drawing on the tradition of Marxist aesthetics – the most pervasive way in which Marxism has entered literary criticism. In this context, I attempt to justify the still valid ‘lessons’ of Marxism’s historically concrete theoretical approach as well as Marxism’s still valid historical power. I hope to reveal Marxism’s distinctive relevance to the process of estrangement, atomization and reification in post-war society in order as well to offer a refutation of the current standard criticisms and dismissals of Marxism. This dissertation, focusing on prominent new class approaches as well as theoretical studies and debates on race and ethnicity in Marxist literature, will frame an analysis through an approach to the question of estrangement. The overall aim is to reconceptualise the broader economic, cultural and social framework of the processes of alienation and of escape mechanisms employed by the individual as defence mechanisms in capitalist cultures. Over the course of the study, it will also be suggested that the concept of identity should be taken into account in a more radically intersectional manner and that one-dimensional postmodern identity politics is unable to give a materialistic articulation of poverty and subordination within the larger context of global economics. The thesis develops an anti-establishment, egalitarian and emancipatory framework in reading its authors: one which might also be 5 implemented as part of a movement that aims to critique, resist and overthrow injustice and oppression. 6 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor, Professor Patricia Waugh, whose expertise, generous guidance and intimate support made it possible for me to complete this project. I have benefited from countless hours of her advice regarding both my research and academic life, and she has personally and academically become an inspiring role model for me. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Samuel Thomas for supporting me whenever I needed his help and to Professor Stephen Regan for the chats about Terry Eagleton and Karl Marx during the annual progress reviews. I would like to thank Professor Abdul R. JanMohamed for finding time to read my dissertation and making constructive comments and suggestions about my research during my visit to the University of California, Berkeley as a research scholar. Special mention must go to Asst. Prof. Azer B. Kemaloğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dilek Kantar who genuinely motivated and encouraged me to pursue this project. I also owe my deepest gratitude to my parents and sister for their constant support, love, understanding and encouragement and would like to dedicate this thesis to them. 7 Anneme, Babama ve Kardeşime… To my parents and sister… 8 INTRODUCTION Althusser’s concept of overdetermination, articulated as part of his attempt to combine psychoanalysis and Marxist theory, suggests that any given effect has more than a single cause and that every effect has multiple determinants through which that effect is produced. However, in order not to get lost in a typical poststructuralist worship of difference, Althusser articulates the notion of “determinant in the final instance” (118) and points out that one determinant among multiple determinants will function as the dominant and organizational one and that each determinant’s condition of existence – a revelation of a different level of social structures and practices – will actually derive from the relations of production at that given moment (1969, 100). Although this concept/argument may at first sight appear overly grounded in a reductive materialism, the position serves usefully to suggest how individual consciousnesses, experiences and feelings are mainly shaped by practical relations under the hegemony of collective and historical processes and how a focus on the particularity and immediacy of lived experience might, for that reason, reveal the complex mediations within a determinate mode of production: The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is … interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men ... Conceiving, thinking, the mental intercourse of men, appear … as the direct efflux of their material behaviour … they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces. (Marx 1845-46, 9) 9 Literary texts, aesthetically depicting “structures of feelings”1 (Williams 1977, 133) and fictionalizing actual as well as reimagined or imagined histories in a given period, are, from this perspective, seen as produced in specific historical contexts and, despite their aesthetic individualization of social reality, are also seen to reflect the material social process with its inherent qualities and tendencies. Fictional texts are therefore regarded as able to mediate an imagined totality of social,