Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs "No-Men in This No-Man’s Land": British State, Nation and Political Enemy in John le Carré’s 1960s and 1970s Cold-War Novels Thesis How to cite: Manning, Toby (2015). "No-Men in This No-Man’s Land": British State, Nation and Political Enemy in John le Carré’s 1960s and 1970s Cold-War Novels. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2015 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000ef5d Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk “No-Men in this No-Man’s Land”: British State, Nation and Political Enemy in John le Carre’s 1960s and 1970s Cold-War Novels Thesis submitted to the Open University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of English, Facuity of Humanities, 5 March 2015. ' Toby Manning (B.A., M.A., M. Phil) oV IN - 2.0 tS of- \ 2 ,-d i S ProQuest Number: 13834661 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13834661 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This thesis examines John le Carre’s 1960s and 1970s Cold-War novels in their historical context, and devotes a chapter each to: Call for the Dead (1961), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), The Looking Glass War (1965), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and Smiley’s People (1979). The thesis argues, contra the critical and popular consensus, that far from being ‘neutral’ representations of Cold War politics, these novels give expression to a powerful liberal-national ideology. The thesis breaks down into three themes. First, le Carre’s representation of the British state is scrutinised via the intelligence services. Although le Carre’s novels have been interpreted as anti-establishment, close historicist analysis discloses a contradictory affirmation of the British establishment. The state is decried and disavowed by the novels’ protagonists for its bureaucracy, inefficiency and expedient morality, but this is a distraction from these protagonists’ actions’ defence and reassertion of the state. Second, le Carre’s representation of the British nation is examined wherein the discursive field of ‘nation’ provides insight into who and what was being fought for in the Cold War. These projections of British nationality, of a neutral ‘way of life’, also expose anxieties about British post-war social reconstruction, British Empire and British decline. The books constitute a reassertion of a conservative British nationalism, probing but ultimately reaffirming traditional class hierarchies and British ‘decency’ both at home and abroad. Thirdly, le Carre’s representation of Communism, the West’s political enemy, is analysed, offering insight into the tactical and ideological British anti-Communist effort during the Cold War. Communism is presented as an existential threat to the British society but without any clear ideological motive being revealed. In these novels a trenchant anti-Communism disproves critical claims that le Carre’s work proposes moral equivalence between East and West. 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements, Dedication, Declaration ...........................................................................5 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 1. Le Carre’s Cold War..................................................................................................6 2. Desk and Field: Literature Review ......................................................................... 12 3. Faultlines: a Critical Methodology .........................................................................29 4. State, Nation and Political Enemy: Terms Defined ............................................... 33 5. Roadmap: Chapter Breakdown............................................................................... 44 Chapter 1. Call for the Dead....................................................................................................48 1. Calling Card: Call for the Dead in Context .......................................................48 2. “A Symbol of Nothing at All”: the State ...........................................................52 3. “Deep Love of England”: Imagining the Nation.................................................60 4. “Mass Philosophy”: the Political Enemy ............................................................ 72 5. Call to Account: Conclusion ................................................................................ 83 Chapter 2. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ....................................................................84 1. Cover Story: The Spy in Context ..........................................................................84 2. “Not Quite a Gentleman”: Classlessness and the British Nation .......................89 3. “We are Defensive”: British State ‘Neutrality’. ...............................................97 4. “Party Terms”: Political Enemy Ideology .............................................................108 5. Means to an End: Conclusion ................................................................................116 Chapter 3. The Looking Glass War ........................................................................................ 117 1. Reflected Glory: The Looking Glass War in Context ..........................................117 2. “That Secret Elite”: the Department and the British State...................................122 3. “The Mystery of England”: the British Nation .....................................................131 4. “A Sort of Cuba Situation”: the Political Enemy ..................................................143 5. Upon Reflection: Conclusion.................................................................................148 Chapter 4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy .................................................................................... 149 1. The Cambridge Companion: Tinker Tailor in Context .................................... 149 2. “The Vast Army of Bureaucrats”: the British State ..........................................154 3. National Decency and National Violence ......................................................... 161 4. “Fanaticism” and “Mindless Treason”: Political Enemy Characterisation 175 5. “Holding the World Together”: Conclusion......................................................184 Chapter 5. The Honourable Schoolboy................................................................................ 185 1. “There’s a Book in the Middle, Actually”: Schoolboy in Context .....................185 2. Colonialism and the British State......................................................................... 189 3. Colonialism and the British Nation....................................................................... 195 4. “A Spreading Plague”: Communism and Southeast Asia ................................... 210 5. Communism and Colonialism: Conclusion ......................................................... 218 Chapter 6. Smiley’s People................................................................ 220 1. Blunt and Detente: Smiley’s People in Context ................................................220 2. “Malevolent Bureaucracy”: Smiley and the British State ................................ 226 3. “The Survival of Reasonable Man”: Smiley and the British Nation ............... 236 4. “We Must Combat Communism”: Karla as the Political Enemy ....................246 5. Smiley’s Last Bow: Conclusion ..........................................................................257 Conclusion: “No-Men in This No-Man’s Land” .................................................................258 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................269 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all my ‘secret sharers’: my PhD supervisors, David Johnson and Suman Gupta, most of all, for steady but stimulating steering throughout. I would also like to thank Robert Clarke (for Macherey), Ben Pritchett (for ‘Operation Margarine’ and reading drafts), David Wilkinson (for ‘ideology’ as cult) and Adam Sisman (for early sight of his le Carre biography). Thanks to the Open University for funding this work. Thanks, not least, to John le Carre for decades of pleasure: a pleasure expanded rather than diminished by researching this thesis. Love and gratitude, as ever,